Where I live, they're years ahead of the U.S. in terrestrial, digital, HDTV, 'Hi-Vision', W-CDMA, plasma displays and other technologies. Ten years ago, terrestrial TV broadcasts were of higher quality than any current cable system in the U.S. but that's due to continuous infrastucture and broadcast equipment investment.
There's even a hydrogen fuel cell "filling station" for cars opening in a few weeks about 1 mile from my house.