No, lack of maker-branding is not a sign of xenophobia

Android Authority has a posted a shockingly bad piece of click bait by an author who appears to know absolutely nothing about the Japanese mobile marketplace. Either that or this is an April fools joke nine days too late.

His logic seems to be as follows:

1. NTT docomo and KDDI versions of the Galaxy S6 lack Samsung branding.
2. Samsung is a South Korean Company.
3. Therefore Japan is xenophobic.

um, what?

Commenters diligently pointed out that, since the very beginning, Japanese mobile phones have typically lacked any branding whatsoever. It was also brought to the author's attention that NTT docomo model numbers distinguish between makers (e.g., F = Fujitsu, SO = Sony, SC = Samsung, SH = Sharp).

To this, I'll add that maker-branding on phones subsidized by and available from Japanese carriers is a relatively recent phenomena.

Because these facts – facts which the author deftly brushed aside with a brilliant non sequitur about domestic versus international models – are plainly obvious to anyone who has lived in Japan long enough to remember the golden age of galapagos feature phones, the commenters perhaps assumed the author was simply unaware.

It is particularly stunning how a set of observations can be interpreted in a way that leads to such flawed conclusions.