Drew, respect is a multifaceted word, RESPECT, you talk about respect from the knock off companies and Japan and your opening up a huge can of worms economically.
Does Japan respect the American consumer market as a whole? Not really, beyond trying to sell their stuff here cheaper than most American consumer products counterpart.
Why is it its so hard to sell American products in Japan vs sellng Japanese products in the United States? Protectionist trade policies !! Japan pratices protectionist trade policies all the time. Its become a bit better recently but its still very unbalanced.
Now do not get me wrong here, I like Japanese products and Japanese people but I do think they need to work on things trade wise.
Granted some american products are no longer worth purchasing but there was a time when that was different. Japan killed the American consumer electronics business with lower priced copies of stuff they learned how to manufacture from American companies.
How do I know this? The American goverment in the 70's made big mistakes in letting Japanese business's tour our automatad factorys to learn the tech so they could go do it themselves. Why do I now this because my father was in charge of Technology at Fairchild Semiconductor. He witnessed this stuff first hand. The end result the Japanese copied our products and manufacturing tech and sold the shit cheaper.
Hmmmm can we say knock off!!! I am not advocating any of this stuff but before you start a thread about this kind of stuff and start talking about respect realize its kinda of a case of the pot calling the Kettle black here.
Japanese aero companies are reaping what has been sowed by their forebearers in Japanese business in general.
Want to stop knock offs ? Well then people have to learn to trade fairly.
China should not be tieing the Yuan to the dollar !! If the Yuan floated freely like it should then we would not see as much of this made in China knock off stuff due to cheap labor. The labor would be paid more.
This whole thing is about fair trade policies and until countries decide to work that way shits going to happen i.e. copies knock offs etc..
I know people in the Pro Audio business who will not buy certain companies stuff because its made in China now. Thats cool on a social political basis statement wise but unless everyone follows suit nothing happens.
People want to buy crap and suffer the consequences that is there problem.
If the stuff is cheaper and quality then it maybe worth purchasing. In that sense it has nothing to do with respect.
Oh excuse me I will let you charge me 3-4 times what the item sells for because I respect you. Man I want some of what your smoking if thats the way you think it should be.
Fuck me in the butt, thank you very much, I like your product. hahhahahhahahhahhahahhahhahaha
Drew, I date Japanese women, I have very close Japanese friends I know all about respect in the Japanese sense. I do respect Japanese people and companies, but it does not stop me from developing products to compete with them. I am not talking aero but you might as well. Aero is the kind of stuff where knock offs are inevitable. Also did you know imitation is the highest form of flattery?
Fact is most of the knock off aero stuff does suck , the few times I have been stuck with a couple of pieces of it I have hated it.
Yet some of the very companies that are making that knock off stuff are also making Carbon Fiber stuff that we can't get anyplace else. TC sportline, Seibon, VIS all are turning out decent carbon stuff these days. Their products have actually improved.
Now if we could get the same stuff from Japan here for a reasonable price we would probably buy that. Yet most of it is either not available or prohibitively expensive not all but some .
I sell a lot of JDM stuff that I would not buy made by someone else, a lot of Nissan stuff. I also sell products that are very quality yet made here or in other countries.
Am I not supposed to sell that stuff out of respect for JDM stuff ?ハッハハハッハッハッハハははっはっは
NOT!! ya that was laughing in Japanese characters
If these Japanese aero companies your so worried about really want to do something about the situation they really can!! Its not like they can't ! Do not sell the Japanese short in their desire to market to the world or the U.S.