When Japan decided to penetrate foreign markets with its cars, it offered the small, inexpensive models, gaining a price advantage because of its low labour costs. In order to create a more sustainable advantage in these markets, Japan continuously upgraded towards more sophisticated models, investing in large modern plants to gain scale economies, despite its continuing labour cost advantages. Gradually Japanese car makers created a niche for themselves in foreign markets through process innovation, productivity and quality practices. This earned them a better reputation than their competition in terms of product quality, customer satisfaction and repair records.

IBM gained permission to establish a wholly owned subsidiary in Japan and in exchange granted patent rights to Japanese manufacturers. With this technology, Japan commenced manufacture of these products. To gain shares in home markets, Japan resorted to price cutting. The Japanese government assisted with "home-market protection", requiring institutions to place their computer orders with Japanese manufacturers. As home markets grew, Japan used price and distribution strategies to penetrate US markets. Price 10 to 20% lower than ICB, the Japanese relied on American distributors to move their products. Fujitsu sold through Amdahl's network, Hitachi through Intel, etc. The same strategy was adopted in European markets, with Fujitsu selling under the German Siemens AG brand. With a foothold in the developed countries, demand in the developing countries began to grow, particularly in Hongkong, Brazil, Taiwan, etc. Price strategy worked in the Hongkong and Brazil markets. In Southeast Asia, each Japanese firm targeted a different country. In Thailand, NEC sold through Datamat Ltd, the sole distributor in the country. Hitachi and NEC concentrated on Singapore and Hongkong, and Fujitsu targeted the Philippines selling through Facom Computers.