What I am saying in terms of Quality people/users view Quality from various viewpoints as it relates to their operation & business objectives. As some examples:
1. A fair market value lease or long term rental is a very popular way end users can acquire the use of new equipment for 2 to 7 year period depending on the equipment and operating environment w/5 year term the most common and many are supported by a "full maintenance agreement". The end users basically looks at a forklift with a 10,000 hour economic lift span the same a one with a 20,000 hour life span, because all he is looking for is will the unit operate safely and reliably during the term of the agreement.
2. Of course, the user evaluates other factors Quality of customer support, Quality of Support Personnel, Reputation of the Equipment, Dealer response time to resolutions of issues, parts availability
3. Quality of the equipment is judge in varying degrees of importance by end users on many factors such as easy/comfortable a piece of equipment is to operate; of course, how long a piece of equipment will last, ease of service, how the fit and finish of the equipment, etc.
4. In many instances customer, purchasing oerpating people, owners will tell you they are looking for the best "total" value (Product, Support, Finance, Rental Support, Economics) that fits the needs of their company.
5. Most lift truck companies promote they offer high quality equipment (haven't seen one that promoted they offer "low quality" equipment). Companies use terms like they use Tri 10 steel or their bearings are 2 ranks up from the competitions, outstanding fuel economy. But it is hard to find any company that can provide quantitative data in an understandable form that validates these claims.

In my viewpoint, a key difference between east & west views is some what simple - the east views product merits from a more scientific / quantitative view point and in the USA there is less of that and more "emotional" appeal. When it comes to the commercial side of the business there is little difference - except in the accounting methods. I have worked for Japanese owned companies for 17 years.

If you need further in depth understanding you might want to consider visit the US and do some market reasearch.