noe comments

It's funny to see how insecure and scared people are. If you stay blinded because you want Japan to be the best you'll only end up falling and it'll just be better for Koreans.

First of all Ogi, I think by 'producer's goods' the correct economic term is capital goods; which by no means Japan owns a monopoly in. Japan is ONE of the worlds major exporters of capital goods but the actual world leaders come from Europe and the USA. In fact most of Korea's capital goods and non-produced goods (e.g. patents) come from Germany, France and the US. For example, although the Japanese like to think Korea copied their bullet train system, the Korean system was actually designed in France (TGV) and most of the manufacturing plants are designed and produced in Germany or by Hyundai (just like the rest of the world). It's time for the Japanese to get their heads out and realise nobody quite cares about you anymore.

In terms of manufacturing components, hardly any of the things produced by Korea have components that come from Japan. Kore has its own precision steel technology and mostly collaborates with Europe and the US thus, is the worlds largest producer of microchips and chipsets. SK Hynix and Samsung own 70% of the world market share.

Also, to say Koreans steal Japanese ideas is like saying the Japanese stole their ideas from the US and the west. Koreans used to purchase a lot of patents from Japan but now they DON'T because they have their own. KAIST is one of the foremost institutes in the world and South Korea is rated as having the most research and development than any other country in the world.

It makes sense, Japanese people are scared - sony died to Samsung and LG, the Japanese shipbuilding industry flopped thanks to Hyundai, Samsung and Daewoo, your cultural industry died thanks to Korea, and you lost your image of being the 'cool' country to Korean cosmetics, fashion and culture. It's right to be scared - it's called competition.

Japanese talk proudly about how they're a nationalistic nation and they have strong domestic consumption. Korea was split in half by the Japanese and yet they still do this well, imagine when they reunite with the resources of the North. They're a hard working, patriotic people thus why Japanese brands mostly flop in Korea... Please know the facts before you walk yourselves into a ditch.