60’s childhood: summers waiting for the Lyons Maid ice cream van on a council estate, listening to the Beetles on the radio and playing on the pavement with toy cars was a long way from made in Japan now. It can’t be much good, it says “made in Japan” on it was a common sentiment at the time. And so it was for a while it seemed. We went to the moon; record players became stereo’s. The world was black and white for ever it seemed, then one day the television was in colour and bright yellow cars with sharp chrome detail suddenly raced around the streets with names like Datsun. A new sound filled the morning air, thrashing past me on my paper round by the name of Yamaha while the daily news kept us bored in between power cuts and strikes by British Leyland. The 70’s had arrived.
While England lost its way as a producing nation Japan saw the future.
Thank you Japan
Andy Sharpe
