measurement freaks
My dealings with Japanese tech folks shows me they are measurement freaks bigtime. They love close tolerances and working as small (or large) as needed. I have also heard this anecdotally repeated from other people who had dealings with them. They also have the cultural mindset for making quality. I think this is why you see so many good quality japanese made things today.
I remember way back in the 60s when I was working for GM and I had a chance to look at some of the japanese cars that were just showing up, I went, paraphrased "these guys are gonna take our lunch money if we don't get on the stick and start emphasizing engineering over just crap giant raw horsepower of dubious quality". I got laughed at and dismissed. All sorts of union guys told me I was nuts, "no one will ever buy those little things". I just looked at the reliability/quality/mileage and went, "nope, they are gonna do it, just watch".
Ha! I was right, just two decades out in my prediction, when it really became apparent even to the shortbus dudes.
I had a tanaka aquabug bike motor in the 70s, dang slickest little reliable motor. I had an email correspondence with the company a few years back (because I wanted another one) to see if they would consider remaking that device, but they said they didn't want to because it is "transportation" and there are too many liability issues with it. Said they would like to, but didn't think it would be good for their company at this time.
Currently all I have tanaka is a string trimmer and it rocks. If I get flush I would definitely consider one of their saws, especially that now they have a 7 year warranty.
