Mikhail Gorbachev has written this in his autobiography

In his younger days, while studying in Europe... He used to study along with two Japanese students.

He writes The 2nd World War had come to an end & Japan had been destroyed, and it was facing crippling economic sanctions as well.

During the classes, these two Japanese students used to take turns writing the notes, while the other student would mend the pencil & keep it ready for use. In those days, Japanese pencils used to be of inferior quality & the lead tip of the pencil which was very brittle used to break frequently.

Fellow students advised them to use the far superior pencils made in England, which were not expensive either.

With tears in their eyes, the Japanese students said "If we ourselves do not purchase & use our own products however bad they may be, then who else will buy them and how will our people and industries develop. We don't deny that we do not have good quality today, but there will soon be a day when the whole world will use our Japanese pencils."

Time to think for ourselves now.