Tossing corporate welfare at Sony and Sharp for the past several years hasn't spurred them to come up with a viable answer to Apple's iPhone or Samsung's Galaxy line of smartphones.

Sony sure are making some good cameras though and world leading sensors. If only they would sell the cameras sold in Japan with other language options instead of just Japanese.

Its more than just the smartphones. Hitachi didn't even get in the smartphone area, and they are doing ok. Japanese companies are not going to beat Apple or Samsung at smartphones. These two companies are the best at making them.

One problem Japan has is that their other electronic products are no better than Samsung's or LG's products, but they are much more expensive. People now buy DVD players, TVs, and PCs from these other famous makers or from cheap chinese makers.

Another problem Japan has is this Kore wa Nihon (this is Japan) attitude. We make products this way and only this way. Well, the problem is, no one outside of Japan is buying these products, and a quarter of the population in Japan is above the retirement age, so they really are not interested in new gadgets, and the young, who are generally the driving force behind consumer spending for new appliances and gadgets are a diminishing demographic.

Pesek is right. Japan needs to reinvent itself. It needs to reinvigorate its economy by reinvigorating its young people. Remember, they are the future. The old giants are dinosaurs. Best to leave them where they belong: in a museum.

Japan Inc. is the source of all Japan's economic woes. A lot of the innovations coming out of Silicon Valley are from young startups who have very few staff, but backers with big wallets. It's organic, not held up by out-of-touch middle-aged men who are just sitting around, waiting in line for their tenure-based promotion. This is a corporate culture that doesn't encourage change, nor innovation.

The old boys' club is killing Japan & this is only exacerbated in the tech sector.

I've never found a Japanese product that has a nice user experience/interface. That's one of Apple's main strengths - things are where you expect them to be. You don't have to dig deep through menus trying to figure out where something is, you go to where you assume it would be, and it is usually there. Japanese companies just don't seem to be able to match this quality user experience. And since smartphones depend upon this, I don't see a Japanese company ever making a phone that would come close to matching Apple or Android.

Here is our regular Pasek getting it pretty right again, but this one is SO obvious, except to the J-govt, look for them to waste our taxes & rack more debt on these loser companies

From what I've read, Chinese companies will soon be dominant in the smartphone business and it could be they have even greater market share in electronics. At one time Japanese electrical goods were state of the art, as good as you could get. The companies were brilliant in the 1980’s and 1990’s, creating products that were both innovative and reliable. I honestly believe something akin to AI Singularity is possible this century, making the electronics industry even more important. Are the Japanese manufacturers capable of adapting, or is their collective hubris so overpowering that they are unable to see different ways of doing things?

Japan may be falling behind in consumer goods, the instead electronics manufacturers are concentrating on high end circuits and materials. There is still lots of stuff only Japanese electronics manufacturers can do because only they have the capital and expertise to do it. Unfortunately for Sony, they concentrated on consumer goods far too long.

He says that rather than support the Japan Inc giants that prefer new generations of lifelong workers, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could use tax incentives and government-funded venture capital funds to encourage young people to form their own companies and invent products that have a chance of spearheading new industries.

Spot on. To succeed in the 21st century, high-tech, global economy, value-added based economies like Japan must be both innovative and nimble. Japan Inc. is neither.

Old Japan Inc. still has a lot of traction in materials, tech and scale economies, but these must be much further up the value chain than its competitors.

Sectors with a low cost of entry should be avoided like the plague by all but the leanest, hungriest startups.

"products" -- is not the answer. How are people expected to make a living in this messed-up society?

In all these arguments it has to be remembered that Japanese industrial policy (administrative guidance) has changed dramatically in the last two decades. Way back when, the government had a convoy system policy that was aimed at developing a group of massive companies whose strategy was export-oriented. This allowed Japanese electronics manufacturers (and automobile companies) to carry out frontal assaults on international markets. Basically, everyone was selling the same products with a few tweaks. However, those days are long gone, and the weaker companies are either either suffering or now out of business (remember Sanyo)? Sony and the other manufacturers have been left to fend for themselves. However, what was previously their strength (incremental improvement) has now become a weakness. They are good at improving products, not thinking outside the box and developing new ones.

With regard to comparisons with Apple and Samsung, both a very difficult companies. Samsung is still a Korean Chabeol so it is subject to South Korean industrial policy (which is based on the old Japanese model). As such, any direct comparison with Sony and other Japanese companies needs to take into consideration the effect of policy distortion. On the other hand, like them or loathe them Apple is truly an innovative company which is reaping the rewards accordingly.