Steve
The market for musical instruments is always changing, so I don't think there will be a single answer to your question.
In the 70's, yes I go back that far, some of the guitars coming out of japan were incredible. For acoustics most notably the Suzuki series, with the W5025, being at he top of the pile. If you ever hear of a W5025 for sale, run to buy it!. The Tenada series guitars were also incredible. The D-149 was a beautiful instrument.
I used to own a late 60's Yamaha acoustic that was the equal of anything I've ever played for acoustic jazz. I've always regretted selling that Yamaha.
I lost my W5025 in a fire in '78, along with an Ibanez solid body and a Rickenbacker bass, and replaced it with a Martin D-35, in 79'( which I still have). The Suzuki was $250.00 new in '77, the Martin close to $900.00 new. The Martin never had the "punch", through the range, that the Suzuki did,and the Tenada, blew them both away.
I also owned the original Ibanezs', and still own a 1977 Artist 2619. ( It was supposedly owned by Mackey Feary at one time, but that could be a guitar shop tale, as it would have made Mackey and myself it's only owners, based on how long I've owned it. I bought it in '79-'80 in downtown Honolulu.) I've not seen a poplar Ibanez, mine have been maple.
The point being, that at one point in time the Japanese musical instrument had to be heavily subsidized to turn out the quality of some of the instruments that hit the US. Is the quality still dollar for dollar better in Japanese instruments? I doubt it is any longer because the markets have normalized themselves. Production run guitars seem pretty "junky" to me when I look at them, no matter where they're made.
Last edited by Mike Cutler; 03-06-2016 at 11:47 AM.
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