One thing I have learned, after living in Japan for 6 years, is that many small to mid-size Japanese companies have almost no interest in dealing with the hassle of reaching potential markets outside of Japan. Why exactly I don`t know - there is the language barrier of course, but I get the feeling it has more to do with a healthy fear of western lawyers.

There are so many companies producing high-quality, innovative products (Tyrell Bicycles for example) but for some reason they won`t make an attempt to branch out into foreign markets on their own.