‘Who could have imagined?’
It’s not surprising to me. Japanese engineering and manufacturing standards surpassed the US in the late 70’s & early 80’s when US manufacturers purposely reduced quality to shorten “planned obsolescence” time frames.
It backfired big time, and the Japanese got a foot hold in the US auto market. It’s only natural Americans would also sample tractors and other Japanese products.
We own a Case IH DX25E, which is a 25 HP diesel 4WD tractor. It’s made by Shibaura. It’s tough as nails, takes beating after beating. It looks like it’s been through WWIII and survived. A JD never would have lasted like this Shibaura does.
Hey, I’m proud of what Japan has accomplished. Any advantage they got over the U.S. they got by outsmarting the dweebs running our import/export regs. There’s also the fact that in the 80s and 90s their cars actually started and ran in conditions where Detroit stuff wouldn’t.