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Japan Computers
Japan was a latecomer to computer manufacturing. IBM
Japan, a
wholly owned subsidiary of IBM, along with other foreign
subsidiaries, originally dominated the Japanese market.
Until the
1980s, Japanese computer manufacturers viewed their
marketing
battle as one of capturing Japan's domestic market from
IBM Japan,
not of penetrating world markets. However, Japan's
industry
developed with extraordinary speed and moved into
international
markets. The leading computer manufacturers in Japan at
the end of
the 1980s (in the domestic market) were Fujitsu, IBM
Japan,
Hitachi, NEC, and Unisis in mainframes, and NEC, Fujitsu,
Seiko
Epson, Toshiba, and IBM Japan in personal computers.
Despite the
benefits extended by Japanese industrial policy to the
domestic
computer industry, IBM was able to maintain a significant
market
position in Japan--a 24 percent share of the mainframe
market and
a 6 percent share of the personal computer market in 1988.
In 1988 Japan exported US$1.5 billion of computer
equipment, up
more than twelvefold from the US$122 million in 1980.
Japanese
firms were not very successful in exporting mainframe
computers,
but they did very well in peripheral equipment, such as
printers
and tape drives. In the rapidly growing personal computer
market,
Japan achieved a modest market share in the United States
during
the 1980s. Imports of computer equipment in 1988 came to
US$3.2
billion (including parts). However, much of the computer
equipment
produced by foreign-owned firms that is used in Japan is
manufactured domestically by subsidiaries rather than
imported.
The special treatment extended to the computer industry
became
the subject of trade disputes with the United States in
the 1980s,
in particular the government procurement practices for
supercomputers (the fastest, top-of-the-line computers).
At issue
was the inability of United States manufacturers to sell
these
machines to government-funded agencies in Japan. Some
rules were
changed in 1987, but supercomputers remained one of three
products
singled out for further negotiation by the United States
in 1989
under the provisions of the 1988 United States Trade Act.
Earlier,
conflict ensued over a Japanese proposal to protect
computer
software under patent law rather than under copyright law,
a move
that the United States felt would reduce protection for
United
States-designed software in the Japanese market. This
issue was
resolved when the patent law proposal was dropped.
Data as of January 1994
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