No, the 'avoided' was real. Early postwar Japanese imports were nothing special. This tin toy is typical of what I remember as a kid. At the time an American toy boat might be made from thin mahogany, much better quality.
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I think Honda mopeds then motorcycles, and Sony electronics, were the first top-quality Japanese exports but that was a decade later than their postwar reconstruction era.
Yes and if you tore it apart, you most likely would find it was made from beer and pop cans from the US with the writing still on them.