Japan is in a rather different league; they manufacture things that others can't. A lot of factories/companies in Mainland China, Taiwan, Thailand and South Korea etc depend on the Japanese supply chain.
One example of an Indian factory owner that I know may help explain why Indian wage advantage means very little on the global stage. The Indian owner used to have some 20ish workers (most of them work as temporary workers without any contract) in his electrical sockets factory/workshop, and he paid them less than 3000 rupees a month (at current rate it is about $55). But like many other small business owners in India, he had to deal with the authorities. To avoid paying proper taxes, he didn't provide payslips to workers, and he got sued by his workers for not paying wages(he claimed he did but could not provide evidences), so he had to bribe the judge to get away. Anyway at the end, his products cost 40-50% more than the imported ones, and most of the costs did not come from labor cost. He had no incentives to upgrade the factory, and eventually he just stopped production; now he imports electrical sockets directly from China, puts his own tags and labels on them, and claims that these are made in his factory.
One example of an Indian factory owner that I know may help explain why Indian wage advantage means very little on the global stage. The Indian owner used to have some 20ish workers (most of them work as temporary workers without any contract) in his electrical sockets factory/workshop, and he paid them less than 3000 rupees a month (at current rate it is about $55). But like many other small business owners in India, he had to deal with the authorities. To avoid paying proper taxes, he didn't provide payslips to workers, and he got sued by his workers for not paying wages(he claimed he did but could not provide evidences), so he had to bribe the judge to get away. Anyway at the end, his products cost 40-50% more than the imported ones, and most of the costs did not come from labor cost. He had no incentives to upgrade the factory, and eventually he just stopped production; now he imports electrical sockets directly from China, puts his own tags and labels on them, and claims that these are made in his factory.
