Japanese bikes were never popular in the UK we had plenty of descent Frame builders and they produced some pretty good and bad bikes for us to choose from. Luckily we Brits knew that Raleigh did some fairly average bike along with their top end offerings as noted in this forum.

I really smile when I see some low spec "Raleigh" for sale at silly money on eBay and other sites one look at the parts gives its humble origins away.