BebuLamar

It seems for sometimes that the Japanese make most of the cameras on the market but in reality about only Canon cameras are made by the Japanese now.

DHenard Loc: Northeast Tennessee

I have an Olympus OM-D EM1 Mark 3 which is one of their newer models. It was designed in Japan but made in Vietnam.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

Does it really matter where the cameras are made? Are Japanese fingers more agile and capable of precision work than fingers in India, China, Europe or elsewhere around the world? Is there something uniquely special about the climate of Japan that makes for better product? I think not. What is important is how well the workers are trained, and also that the company has control over the quality of workmanship and materials.

BebuLamar

Short answer! It does but I don't wanna talk about that. I just pointed out that most of the camera manufacturers are Japanese, few of them are made in Japan.

Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

Labour costs are higher in Japan than in other S.E Asian countries.

BebuLamar

You quoted the reason and here why it matters.

"Are Japanese fingers more agile and capable of precision work than fingers in India, China, Europe or elsewhere around the world?"

Either the Japanese are better workers or the companies c***ted the workers from South East Asia. Either case it's not a good thing and I do not support companies that do so.
Unlike Japanese cars companies have their production in the US because it's where they sell the most cars. They don't sell the most cameras in South East Asia. The make it there only the c***t the poor workers.

MDI Mainer

I (and I suspect many others here on UHH) can remember when "Made in Japan" was considered a pejorative term to describe cameras, lenses and many other products too.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Could be something different...the last places I worked, we had no problem getting people to apply for jobs being bosses. But it was very difficult finding folks interesting in doing the actual work...despite a starting hourly wage of $14 for line workers and right at $20 for entry-level 'specialty' jobs (in 2014, before I retired).

MDI Mainer

Different countries (even different places in the US) have different costs of living. So paying the going local wage rate does not -- automatically -- equate to c***ting a company's employees. Moving manufacturing off-shore to lower production costs presents a different social issue in the home country, but does benefit consumers and so the quality of life -- at least for some -- in the home country.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

I don’t know if it does, but…would a low wage worker in a repressed country be as reliable as a well paid worker in a free country?

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

You say they "c***t" the workers. Have you ever studied economics? (I was certified to teach beginning economics at the high school level.)

An example I read a study about years ago.
A US tennis shoe company set up a factory in a South Asian Country that had a fairly good education system but the economy didn't produce a lot of good paying jobs.
1. the company was paying only about 1/10 per hour what a US factory would pay
2. a lot of people jumped all over them for exploiting those workers
3. it turned out that they were paying the local workers nearly double the local average pay and
4. at the local cost of living those workers were doing extremely well and were extremely happy to work for the US company
5. they had their pick of the best workers in that country with a huge waiting list of people waiting for a job to open up

It was almost the same situation as Henry Ford who paid what at the time was considered much too high a rate to workers who built the Model-T. ($5 a day when it started in 1914. That was over double the average pay at the time.) Other industrialists thought he was stupid to do so. But it got him his pick of the best workers in the US at the time and his workers could afford to buy the car they were making which got more on the road where other people could see them and in turn want one themselves. (Old Henry sold cars to the workers, picked up at the factory, below the price to other people in other places.)

Many modern writers who had never studied economics also accused Ford of exploiting his workers because they did not know just how those workers' pay rated compared to the rest of the US "AT THE TIME". They were looking at the pay in terms of modern pay rates.
Not only did they not know economics, they didn't know the history very well either.

BebuLamar

I won't buy from those company that didn't pay much for the workers and spent millions for atheletes endorsement. I want to pay the people who make the product not the endorsers.

DHenard Loc: Northeast Tennessee

I am a chemical operator by profession for a multinational chemical company that also has sites in several US states as well. A chemical operator at their Texas site makes much more than I do. My site has very little competition for workers. The other has to compete with several chemical companies and oil refineries for workers so they have to pay more for workers.

Bill_de Loc: US

Like many products, where they are assembled might be a better description. In a interview with the Nikon president a few years ago he said that between 50 - 70% of camera parts are outsourced from all over the world. Although the final assembly and inspection point might be most important.

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TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

That was before they embraced Deming’s principals of quality manufacturing. Regardless of the reason, in my opinion, the Japanese now traditionally produce the highest quality automobiles and electronics in the world, and neck and neck with the Germans for cameras (and typically more affordable). It’s not just the workers and their training, it’s the entire design, management, customer relations and QA philosophy of the companies. My only complaint with Japanese companies is from my experience, they tend to favor features over simplicity of design of the human interface, but that’s a personal opinion and preference.