In Japan, detail-oriented consumers prefer to buy Japanese products packed with features and read thick instruction manuals from cover to cover.

WSJ: Japan's iPad Frenzy Signals a Sea Change

Some parents in that study would read the instruction not to give the medications to children younger than 4 and simply make up their own dose.

WSJ: Missed Warnings on Cold Medicine for Children

As a result, withdrawal rates from state adult literacy programmes were extremely high, estimated at 80-90 %, while the ability of graduates to read unfamiliar texts, even after two years of instruction, remained very low.

UNESCO: Literacy Through Poetry (LTPP)