Re: Manuals of Japanese Consumer Electronics Companies

[Robert Plamondon <robert -at- PLAMONDON -dot- COM>]

Ken Takarada writes:

> Please tell me what you think about manuals from Japanese consumer
> electronics companies in general. Are they any different from the
>"poor-to-somewhat-below-average" manuals you get there in the States?

Japanese consumer electronics manuals suffer from problems that are
quite different from lousy domestically produced manuals:

* Japanese manuals tend to be written by people with a minimal grasp
  of English grammar.  Bad American manuals may sometimes be written
  by people with a poor grasp of English grammar, but that just makes
  them sound uneducated, where the Japanese manuals become incoherent.

* Japanese manuals tend to include little cartoons.  Drawn in a
  manga style that uses many conventions that are unfamiliar to
  Americans, these cartoons aren't very helpful to American readers.
  Also, in America, cartoon-style instructions are traditionally
  aimed at children or illiterates, so their use in Japanese
  manuals seems insulting and condescending.

* Japanese manuals are often repeated in six or seven languages, making
  them less accessible.  Personally (since I am aware that paper cost
  is the dominant factor in high-volume printing), I think that these
  manuals indicate poor production planning on the part of the manufacturer:
  they are paying more money for a poorer manual so they can avoid
  inventory control.

* Most Americans are, at one level or another, aware of the enormous
  quantities involved in a production run of Japanese consumer products.
  They are also aware that Japanese consumer electronics companies
  know where to find native speakers of English -- they can find
  America on a map.  They typically even have large staffs of Americans
  in their U.S. divisions.  Thus, most Americans are aware, consciously
  or unconsciously, that Japanese consumer electronics divisions just
  plain don't give a damn about the American consumer, and are unwilling
  to spend the pennies per product that would give them an excellent
  manual, instead of an incoherent one.  In the minds of anyone who's
  ever tried to hook up a stero according to the manual, these horrible
  manuals betray an attitude of indifference, disrespect, or contempt
  toward the American customer.  (Since virtually everyone in the U.S.
  government has at one time or another tried to hook up a Japanese
  stereo according to the manual, I wonder how much the infuriating
  incompetence of the stereotypical Japanese manual has influence our
  foreign trade policy.)

        -- Robert

P.S. When you buy the stereo, the secret is to never open the manual.
While a stereo can almost always be set up correctly by inspecting
the connectors in back, the manuals serve only to confuse the clearly
labled connector functions.