Obviously, everybody in this thread is smarter than me re. engineering, so as the designated Asperger may I ask the obvious question:
Has anybody actually tried engaging with Sony by walking up to one of their higher level japanese execs at a presentation?
My experience with japanese corporations is that the customer is God, and every bona-fide customer query that is registered will be listened to and relayed upstream, and there will be a careful response. However the query can only come in via a japanese employee, because a non-japanese employee does not (usually) participate in the collective decision process.
Edmund