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Japan stopped disrupting after 1990
Toyota made cars affordable, Honda made motorcycles affordable, and Sony built a 10-transistor pocket radio that let teenagers listen to rock and roll. Canon disrupted Xerox, which is why printers sit in offices and homes. Billions of people could own things that had been beyond their reach, and the makers had to hire people to build, distribute, sell, and service them. For 30 years Japan had no economic recessions and no unemployment.
In the late 1980s, Japanese analysts began measuring success by gross margins, net present values, and internal rates of return. Since 1990 Japan has not generated a single new disruptive innovation, and its economy has been flat for 25 years, with capital everywhere and the cost of capital near zero.
How did Honda win over American riders?
Honda introduced the Super Cub in Japan in 1958 and began selling small motorcycles in the United States in 1959. In 1963 its advertising campaign used the line 'You meet the nicest people on a Honda.' The ads aimed at ordinary people who had never considered riding. The Super Cub went on to become one of the best-selling motor vehicles in history.
How did Canon's engines end up in printers?
Canon developed compact laser printing engines in the early 1980s. Hewlett-Packard used one in the first LaserJet in 1984. Canon thus supplied the core machinery for a printer that small offices could afford. The same approach brought copying and printing down from huge machines in company copy rooms to desks.
What happened to Japan's stock market in 1990?
The Nikkei 225 index peaked near 38,900 on the last trading day of 1989. It then fell sharply through 1990 and 1991 as a boom in stock and land prices unwound. The index did not regain its 1989 peak until 2024. Japanese interest rates stayed near zero for much of the decades that followed.
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