japan is a very unique entity. they take great pride in perfection. i know this because a large percentage of the tropical fish i raised commercially went there. i know that it was nothing for a japanese individual to spend a thousand dollars on a single aquarium for just a couple of my fish. in the usa if a person spent 100 dollars it was too much. it certainly not comparing apples to apples. theri grow rooms are laboratories and i can assure you none of their lights came from home depot.
their building codes for example are about 7 years ahead of ours.
i have toured and know a number of folks with commercial big dollar set ups here and none of them use fluorescents lighting for grow out, flowering, or fruiting. they are looking at led technology, but except for cloning have passed up fluorescents. i go by results and what is happening with successful producers, not the lets get by guys.