Look at how long it takes Polyphony to make GT games...
Sadly Japanese development is rather inefficient. Poor management and mis-fit of skills leads to spending twice as long at the office, getting half as much work done as Western counterparts.
There are several issues that cause this like Japanese hierarchy, but perhaps the biggest issue is this:
In the West people tend to not spend their lifetime at a company; skilled developers are willing to move company to find work where they can use their skills, and those who are experts can get nice pay. As such, when an employer needs a specialized skill on a team, they can attract people skilled/experienced and willing to do that with incentives like pay, career opportunity, etc. Well assembled teams are very efficient. Companies like Naughty Dog can pick the best of the best.
Japanese work culture is rather different. Technology companies hire new graduate students into companies and then they are assigned roles. They may spend a lifetime at the same company. Pay for developers can be quite low even for experienced ones, and moving company is rare. As such companies just make do with the people they have, recycling people to roles as needed even if it may not be their primary skill. Therefore, Japanese engineers tend to work very hard to learn new skills, they are really hard working. It is a more "brute force" approach, and not as efficient as hiring specialists.
