Word: japanizing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...masters of the LIFE photo-essay, broke away from the magazine in 1954 to seek, in his view, more profound forms of expression. He spent nearly 20 years in obscure poverty composing lengthy, obsessive projects, finally regaining acclaim with Minimata, his expose of industrial mercury poisoning in Japan...
...tech companies do not have to look back: they know the Japanese are coming. U.S. computer-chip manufacturers, concerned that their survival is threatened, have gone to Congress for protection. And fear is rising that if the chipmakers go down, it will be only a matter of time before Japan overtakes the U.S. in the computer business. That would put an end to America's high-tech supremacy...
...book uses this theoretical framework to focus on what has happened in the semiconductor industry. In particular, Gilder's analysis attacks the conventional view that the U.S. blundered in letting Japan take over the market for mass-produced memory chips. As he points out, the key component for a computer is not hardware but software, the instructions that make the machine work. When programs like Lotus 1-2-3 made the personal computer a runaway success in the early 1980s, IBM and other firms made a strategic decision to let Japan supply the demand for memory chips that U.S. chipmakers...
...design a vast array of custom chips to suit almost any purpose. These specialized chips can be much more profitable than the commodity chips mass-produced by the Japanese. As more and more instructions are etched onto chips, the balance of power in electronics is shifting from manufacturing prowess, Japan's strength, toward software and design, in which the U.S. excels...
Gilder's arguments, while forceful, are not always persuasive. He seems to forget that Japan, an island nation rich in know-how and poor in resources, is itself a prime beneficiary of the triumph of ideas over matter. The Japanese may not be also-rans in software and custom chips forever. But at a time when so many books talk only about what is wrong with the U.S., Gilder's optimism about the future of American high-tech is refreshing...