"Contrast that to the US and Europe who keep talking about these things, but don't actually execute(although the US at least tries to throw money at the problem)."

What other things should governments do other than "throw money at the problem"... crazy profitable ventures should have some help but they aren't giving those grants back etc.

I'd say total compensation packages in orgs are the root of why things might work in Japan and not in the US. The pay structure in Japan is very rigid, and by just one metric, top executive pay [1], Japan is 3.4x more efficient.

While a highly-paid CEO may not break the company, the skew in pay upward across an org will.

[1] https://www.jstor.org/stable/26592017#:~:text=After%20contro....