ABSTRACT
By the late 1970s, it was clear that fundamental forces were changing the worldwide semiconductor industry. The strong American technical base in this field, nourished first by defense procurement and later by an expanding computer industry, had given the United States market leadership in a wide range of electronics products and systems for consumers, for industry, and, not incidentally, for defense. It was thus both surprising and somewhat shocking – however naive that seems today – to realize that most common consumer electronics products were being supplied in great part by Japan, that innovations in many new products were being introduced by Japan (e.g., the ubiquitous Walkman), and that Japanese companies were moving rapidly into advanced semiconductor components.
