>Another interesting one is technology. Japan got trapped in the 90s, the fax era, and it is difficult to change. Will also the USA and Europe get stuck technologically as the population grows older? Again, it is to be expected.
I've lived in Japan for eight years and the only time I've ever been asked to fax something was by an American company. I told them no.
> my manager needed to invite a salesman out to drinks for us to procure a license of MS Office at my old day job
Do you see the Japanese recognizing/fixing the massive inefficiencies in how they do business any time soon? The Japanese economy's been down in the dumps for the last 20+ years, and these sorts of things can't be helping. Peter Drucker must be turning in his grave (he would be positively spinning if he saw ????).
When I see things like faxes still being prevalent because "my feelings and passion come across better"[0], I wonder if the Japanese are really interested in staying relevant in a global economy. I mean, come on, 59 percent[1] of homes still have faxes? How did these people miss the digital revolution?
> How did Germany get the efficiency stereotype and Japan didn’t?
Everything in Japan still mostly relies on widespread use of fax machines due to their stubborn continued usage of personal wooden seals ("Hanko stamps"). Everyone at every level of management and burocracy has his/her own personal seal which has to be stamped on paper documents, which are then either scanned or sent via fax.
This and a general stubborness on giving up certain deeply rooted but antiquated habits is one of the main reasons Japan is not famous for efficiency.
> dismisses the Japanese for using old tech - whether it’s fax machines or funny looking flip phones
I agree, but those are interesting examples because they're not unique to Japanese culture. Fax machines common enough in the US for them to be continue to be useful, and I see more and more people using flip phones as time goes by.
> When I lived in Japan twenty years ago, everybody just wired money electronically and checks were long obsolete. In the US, I write checks every week or so.
And yet in Japan they're still obsessed with using backwards fax machines and paper.
> Japan got trapped in the 90s, the fax era, and it is difficult to change
The fax machine in Japan is always treated like it's proof they're stuck in a timewarp, an earlier age, and just haven't moved on.
But I think it makes sense. Japan was introduced to fax technology early on. Japanese is traditionally written vertically. It is written with Chinese characters. In handwritten Japanese, people actually invent/modify characters on the spot. (Much as how Engl. text might be littered with randomly-invented abbr'vns.) They're not going to be able to enter those into a computer easily.
Some Japanese newspapers were using traditional typesetting techniques right into the 21st century because vertical text support was, and largely still is, an afterthought in most publishing software. Software has only recently gotten to the point where it can replace a fax machine and handwriting, for reproducing Japanese texts in the manner the Japanese expect. Besides scanning/taking a photo of a page and emailing it, which isn't enough of an improvement to motivate the change. (Particularly as business faxes just end up digitized and emailed anyway.)
Japanese bureaucracy has a bad rap, but it isn't that bad. There's still paperwork (not much has moved online) but the public servant staff are super helpful and guide you through things and are helpful when there is some blocker. Especially in the past 3-5 years there have big improvements with a lot of paperwork and stuff that required your personal seal has been removed, and the MyNumber card makes doing anything online very easy. I've never ever had to fax anything as people joke about (and a friend in Germany actually had to do)
> Is Japan a magical land of far-advanced technology
Is the technology really that far advanced. I understand it was in the 80s maybe? None of the devices I have are made by Japanese companies. None of the software I use is developed in Japan primarily. My car is but that's about it, but I picked it because of reliability not because of high tech features.
> i think this sort of demonstrates just how far behind and backwards Japan is. It's like the country is stuck in late 90s.
I've lived in Japan for the last 10 years, in no way does it seem "stuck in late 90s". And this single incident in no way demonstrates this.
For some reason it's culturally acceptable to make these kinds of comments about Japan in English language forums. But I don't really understand why... Japan is no doubt very different from other countries in various respects. But it doesn't seem helpful to say essentially "we are 30 years ahead of Japan".
You could if you wanted say "wow the US/UK are stuck in the 1990s" because copper broadband is still common in the US/UK. In Japan you often have 4G fiber to the home in rural locations, and 10G connections available in some locations... it's not a super helpful comment though, because countries are complex and you can't point to single issues and make general statements about the countries stage of development.
> Japan is also somewhat difficult for foreigners to live in because of the language barrier, but Germany isn't that different here
In the case of Japan, you also have the insanely difficult writing system, probably the most difficult writing system in current usage. The German language might be difficult, but at least it uses an alphabet with a somewhat consistent spelling.
> I don't think this is going to fundamentally change anything.
me neither.
my in-laws (90+) in Japan are excited about a new DoCoMo phone and always talks about the latest features. He is not an engineer. He is also not a rare case in that country (or that continent).
My own mother back in EU and most of my family are deeply ambivalent at best, or absolutely opposing new Tech / data-driven ideas.
Europe is like the polar opposite of Asia in that sense. The US is some kind of weird middle-ground. When I returned from Asia to EU after 10 years over there I had a reverse-culture shock that lasted at least 5 years. Everything looked backward and stagnant to me. As I get older I realize I'm also becoming very critical. But age can't explain the ambivalence otherwise Japan would be the most Technology hostile society in the world.
>also, exit stamps? Japan is really backwards in this way.
In 2019 I spent three months in Japan consulting for a very large and very recognizable Japanese aerospace company that was partnered with my employer.
Let's not focus on the bureaucratic nightmare my folks went through to make that happen, and the dozens upon dozens of paper forms I had to fill out daily/weekly.
Let's focus on the boxes and boxes of floppy disks they had on their supply shelves. Floppy disks that were needed, in 2019, to perform critical business functions.
> that organization should be considered unfixable and just thrown away to be replaced wholesale
what?
> Fax is evil and should have been dead a decade ago.
why?
Paper document facsimile is a useful facility basically as long as people fill or sign things out by hand or with stamps, and with Japanese even just coding people's names correctly into a computer is a task that requires both specialized skills and tools.
These sweeping statements just strike me as ignorant and devoid of empathy.
Greetings from Germany as well...
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