Insular Japanese! No place to get decent gadgets!

Ok Japan is too Japanese. I guess that Japan is among the best, if not the best when it comes to electronic gadgets. I may appear a bit too eclectic but I spent this weekend searching for a place to sell Philips A/V.
Guess what! I couldn’t find it anywhere. I am not saying that you cannot get Philips in Tokyo, but at least in Akihabara and in all the major electronic stores they didn’t have it, nor did they have LG or Samsung. What was even more terrifying was that the sales people didn’t even know about Philips. They were surprised when I enquired about it and they even trying to tell me that I am wrong and that Philips doesn’t exist otherwise they would have it in their stores. One even told me that their shops carries only major “international” brands and Philips is too small for them.
Hmm! Some reviewing is required. Philips is Europe’s biggest consumer electronic products company by far. It is a dutch company and its products the last years have been sweeping awards(especially design ones). It is one of the biggest produces or LCD screens in the worlds, along with Samsung and LG( 2 korean firms).
I found out the hard way that the Japanese domestic market is really insular and the big guys treat it like their own back yard. In japan this clubby atmosphere permeates almost every industry.
I making this assumption in 2007. If Japan continues this road, its companies like Sharp, Toshiba, Hitachi, Panasonic and others will lose their way and end as smaal(according to global standards) electronic companies. Japanese companies are not at the foremost when it comes to LCD, Koreans are. Japanese betted on Plasma(which proved to be a wrong decision, although I am a plasma fan). In cameras Japanese are still unrivaled(even though you cannot get any non-japanese cameras). In computers and other gadgets they are hopeless. Mp3s, remember the iPod! Video players, has anyone heard about Archos? Mobile phones, Nokia anyone?
If you know where to find Philips products in Tokyo let me know!

Zani out!

Comments

[Sebastien]

Hello

unfortunately, I advise you to look for another brand.

After searching few minutes on kakaku.com and rakuten, the only devices I found are electric shavers and stuf for teeth (!)

Good luck

S

[Zanat0s]

YEap,

it sucks and i do not know if i have to pay a lto of tax if i mport the stuff i want.

It is incredbile. They are commiting slow suicide!

[Sebastien]

They just think they are the best LCD/ plasma TV makers in the world.

This vision even goes extreme in a sense.

Sharp recently developped a LCD TV range "made in Kameyama" which means 100 % made in Japan....and more expensive than the regular Sharp LCD TV.

They even created a website to promote the plant : http://www.sharp-kameyama.com/

I bought on Rakuten a SONY LCD TV this weekend (quite cheap compared to Europe). Ordered on saturday afternoon Dec 1st, received on sunday afternoon 2nd.No extra charge.

If you still think about Philips, try to send an email to them (http://www.philips.co.jp/) before thinking about importing a TV. Maybe they will suggest an alternative.

If you have to import the TV, I guess you will pay, at least, 5% tax (VAT).

Good luck !

[Guan Hong]

I am not surprise you could not find Philips in certain places of Japan. Japan is so good in electrical appliances which makes them having way too many blind spots to cover.

Take Sony as an example, which a company so pro in many electrical entertaining gadgets. Their engineers so used to close their door and dump their mind solely into researching the new products, without taking a further move in considering what the market wants. Results are obvious, which you must have known that many of their products often only sell well in domestic market (which proven very huge). Many of their products are either not selling well/selling in the international market, aren’t they?

The culture is so, I believe your choice is either get a Sony or buy one on Ebay. Good luck!