In Japan, the workers have more pride in their individual work and it shows in the consistancy of their products.
I've spent a lot of time in Japan, and Asia (months a year) and can't say I agree with that much, it's not the guys/builders, it's the company. Japanese companies generally won't ship out crap. If something isn't right, they'll stop the production and fix it, and dump bad product rather then ship it out. Every year they try to make it better, not necessarily cheaper. Quality control is very strict. They care how they're perceived and know the way they "look" today will haunt them for ages. They look long term.
They call it "face." The way they're perceived by others.
North American companies seem to be more interested in "today." Gotta make the money today to make the investors happy or they'll leave on a moments notice. The company I work for was big into "Ship it... we'll fix the problem on the weekend and the ones we make next week will be fine, or maybe not, but keep building, we need to make 1000 a day or I don't get my bonus!" They've gotten a lot better in the last few years, but no one's paying attention... "we bought one of those before, and it sucked, why would I buy another?"
Things seem to be reversing however. In the '70s, if you bought a Sony anything, it was a great product. It didn't matter what it was... now they're in a race to the bottom. While some American products are getting better.