Japan Is Not China

When I was small I got a plastic toy car in my serial. It was the first thing that I ever saw that was marked "made in Japan". I asked my aunt about this and she said "Japan makes cheap junk" in typical 50's style. I played with that free car and noticed it was not so badly made. It was certainly the best one that I'd ever gotten in a box of cereal. A few weeks later someone stepped on it and broke it and someone said "see - cheap junk." A decade later a strange car appeared at the local garage. It had gold trim not chrome and very distinct styling. I'd never heard of the manufacturer - Toyota. The mechanic laughed at us we we suggested it was not such a great car. It had 200K miles on it and needed a minor repair. This was in the days when the "big three" cars were scrapped at 100K miles or less. A few days ago a family member wanted a very loud non electronic bike bell. I did find one but not in my city. The best one I could find that everyone raved about was from - you guessed it - Japan. As far as my experience goes, Japan should be known world wide for exceptional quality. My experience with anything from China is far from the same. As a young engineer, I looked at a piece of electronics stamped made in China and half the components were missing. They simply left off everything that they could to create a minimally functional device - quality was not an issue. As I have been deluged with products over the past fifteen years marked "made in China" my experience has been similar to my first experience. Anything that can make the device cheaper is a "good idea". LED lights that are unserviceable. Faucets that need replacement before installation, electronics that are unusable with a manual that is unreadable. This is "made in China". I ask you - why do we buy it? Made in Japan, made in Germany, made in Sweden, and many other countries provide great quality and a good customer experience. When will local manufacturers (the few that are left) realize that there is a great local market for their products as long as they deliver quality. As for China, to protect consumers and to protect the environment, minimum quality standards should be mandatory for all imported durable goods.