During  the  past  two  decades   we   have   watched   Japan's

          manufacturing abilities grow very rapidly.  In many circumstances

          Japan's technology has  overtaken  Americn  ingenuity.  Their car

          industry, camera and television markets have made giant leaps  in

          profits.  Their components and  integrated circuitry systems have

          become incredibly strong in world  markets.   But  there  is  one

          place which they have not done well in advancing their profits.


            Computer  manufacturing  is   still   dominated   by   American

          companies.  Companies like Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Tandy and most

          importantly IBM, control computer sales.  Computers  manufactured

          by Japanese companies only make up 2% of  the  computers  used in

          the U.S.  American  manufacturers  have  a  97%  share  of  those

          computers used by the U.S. Japan does have  a  lead  in hand-held

          computers and printers and of  course,  compter  components,  but

          these are the least profitable areas of  the  computer  industry.

          Personal  computers  and  mainframes are  dominated  by  American

          companies.  In fact, in the area of Personal  computers, IBM just

          finished launching a massive assault against Apple and some other

          smaller computer  manufacturers.   They  now  have  made personal

          computers a big  part  of  their  artillery.   They  seemed to be



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          unafraid of  what  was going on in Japan.  The main reason behind

          this is that Japan's biggest weakness is its inability to develop

          thir  own  software.   Instead,  they  produce  hardware that  is

          compatible  with  American  software.   The  one  place that  the

          Japanese do seem to have a chance to overtake the Americans is in

          the development of supercomputers.  But  when  it  comes  to  its

          industry  as  a  whole,  Japan  does  not seem to be a threat  at

          present.  Many of the reasons against  Japan  are  internal,  but

          perhaps the biggest roadblock is the incredible strength of IBM.


            During the late 1970s, IBMs  profit  margin  started  slacking.

          This began with the development of the personal  computer.   With

          many  smaller  companies,  especially   Apple,  leading  the  new

          frontier.  IBM sat  back  and  watched  for  a  little while then

          decided  to  get  into  the  act.   In 1980 a small group of  IBM

          engineers started working on  their  own  Personal computers.  By

          1981 they had designed a computer that significantly changed  the

          personal computer business and IBM as  well.   This  small  group

          took an unconventional for  IBM-approach.   They  were allowed to

          work like a new company,

               "IBM acted as a venture capitalist,"