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If the Japanese are not attentive and innovative enough, their photo industry will suffer a similar fate to that of the German photo industry in the 1960s.
Initially, the Japanese mainly copied German manufacturers, but they quickly became more innovative, cheaper, and often better.
For several years, no one noticed, but a powerful photography and optics industry was quietly growing in Japan.
At first, these were copies of foreign cameras, especially German ones. Leica, Contax, and especially Rolleiflex were the most frequently copied cameras. (This was also the case in Germany with Welta, Lipca Rollop, Zeiss Ikoflex, Voigtländer Superb, and others.)
For many years, the Japanese competition was ignored, then smiled at pityingly, until finally, in 1964, Asahi Pentax presented its Spotmatic....
With a few exceptions, such as Leitz, which occupies high-priced niches, not much remained of the German photo industry.
Voigtländer lenses, the oldest German-speaking company active in the photography sector, founded in 1756, the year W.A. Mozart was born, are now manufactured by Cosina/Japan, as are various Zeiss optics.
Great similarities can already be found in the automotive industry, where the Chinese are not only in the fast lane, but are already innovation and technology leaders in many areas.
Japanese photo products, like the first Japanese cars, were ridiculed here for a long time in the early stages.
They also started out by copying, and we have seen how that has developed over the last 50-60 years.
Today, the Japanese photo industry is laughing at the pitiful remains of the German photo industry.
History repeats itself, and pride comes before a fall and I say this as a German citizen.
Or, to quote a Japanese proverb, “From a summit, it's downhill in all directions.”
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... Tim is VERY far from the genus of Steve!