Japan's economic slide this decade has given many Americans a sense of quiet delight. Japan in the late '80s was the touchstone of U. S. economic anxiety, but it turned out to be an economy pumped up by runaway land prices and Alice-in-Wonderland share valuations. The whole thing crashed in 1992 with a thud heard round the world. Meanwhile, ' the Big Three U. S. auto makers narrowed the quality gap, U. S. PC makers left Japanese rivals in the dust, and Internet upstarts like Netscape Communications Corp. and Yahoo! thrilled both geeks and investors. Now, it's the Japanese who are looking hungrily at America's dominance of software design, microprocessors, and Internet innovations. "We envy you Americans very much," says Fumio Sato, Toshiba Corp.'s outgoing president.
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