Please moderators, delete this theread, because I forgot to add a poll.

My 27" Zenith, which I bought new in 1989 and still use almost every day, has never been serviced and works like a champ. Too bad they are no nonger around. They did a great job.
For Japanese:
Hitachi - '92 until now - only problem is it is not 'cable ready'. Does Hitachi still make consumer electronics? While I don't shop much for same, I don't recall seeing any Hitachi gear of any sort in quite some time in the U.S.
Sony - early Trinitron was fantastic, unless they broke. The almost unrepairable due to complexity and difficulty to work on the smaller models. Nothing new from Sony (other then their very best audio SACD players, etc.) is as good as it used to be. Gone way down in quality in order to compete. Too bad.
Panasonic - '96 till now in the LR system is a 32" unit. HV power supply fried immediately after it went out of warranty and cost $300 to repair. Been good since.

If I were to buy new today, I would probably go with a Samsung as the 'best bang for the buck'.

Best Japanese TV sets, for CRT picture quality? Sony. Nothing else has ever come close, even up through the HDTV era. They were also always the most reliable, up until the late 1980's, then that changed.