Mike Rapoport wrote:

Lower cost labor and/or outsourcing to secure orders (Japan). Not
enviornmental regulation, that's for sure.

Are you sure about that Mike? Japan has some of the highest labor costs in the
world, and has been busy outsourcing manufacturing and labor intensive jobs
overseas. However its labor force IS highly skilled on average. Japan also
has some of the world's most stringent environmental regulations too, in many
cases more so than the USA.