One issue, other than lack of repair parts which permeates the hobby, with the Japanese stuff is the speed. This can be controlled with DCC but in analog operation one is operating with only a small portion of the throttle making minute speed adjustments extremely difficult. Atlas also had this problem and opted to go with their 'scale speed' motor but the Japanese haven't. Maybe when you live in the land of high-speed bullet trains, speed is a good thing.
When I was in Japan last September, for those hobby stores that have layouts, the Japanese like their trains fast!
