Some people like to slam Japan as being non-innovative. The Japanese, these people say, can take anyone else's idea and make it better. Better cars, better cameras, better reality TV. And so on.
But when it comes to inventing things themselves, the contention goes, what do the Japanese got? Karaoke perhaps? Shuriken? Anyone for the endoscope?
But to me the power of Japanese ingenuity can be verified with a single word. A word that — when it comes to creativity — just sticks out. For what do other cultures have that can possibly beat . . . Pocky.