Why Japanese Technology Fell Behind

[@hellomayuko]

Hope you enjoyed the video! Let me know what topic you'd like to see next! Also, here are the links to the articles I mentioned at the beginning of the video if y'all are interested. www.japan.go.jp/technology/innovation/ www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/rebooting-japans-high-tech-sector www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-21992700 www.cnn.com/2019/11/25/tech/japan-tech-startups/index.html](www.cnn.com/2019/11/25/tech/japan-tech-startups/index.html www.mercurynews.com/2012/10/12/japans-once-mighty-tech-industry-has-fallen-far-behind-silicon-valley/ kzbin.info/www/bejne/b4qQin17qd17m9E kzbin.info/www/bejne/bpuZlKibecydf7c

[@fandysetiawan5019]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/lWi8nHaNg6mSrpo

[@ropro9817]

'Software as second class'... that explains a lot! Even when Japan's hardware was dominating, the accompanying software was horrible!

[@WAT1212]

😁😁😁

[@agzapiola]

Perfect excuse to share the tangentially related but nonetheless BEST VIDEO ON KZbin: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5mYfYxqgt9ka9E (history of japan)

[@asutoshghantoiiitdharwad5674]

this software is second class atitude is prevalent in india as well ,they are payed really less in companies like TCS,Infosys and horrible work culture.

[@junnnsonggg]

Insightful! “Software is second class to hardware” sums up why Japan makes great cameras but horrible firmware.

[@IceBelly]

damn that's a great example

[@upa8629]

it's nice example

[@TomNook.]

And now that Apple have caught up with hardware, there's no contest

[@PatrikKron]

@@TomNook. I’m not sure if how it is in the latest iPhone, but Apple have at least used Sony cameras before in their phones.

[@maxdegreat566]

@@TomNook. apple does not make dslr's?

[@cherryblossomings]

Soooo true! As an American living in Japan for 2 years, my friend said that their culture of collectivity/harmony doesn’t encourage wild creativity. No one likes to disagree with you, challenge your ideas, etc. She also noticed that it’s so shameful to switch jobs in Japan-so of course, you can’t get fresh new perspectives as quickly as in America where people change companies often. She loved visiting the country as a tourist, but trying to work there in tech was stifling. It was also frustrating how outdated all of their apps and software are 😅 People like idolizing the japanese for being technologically advanced, but man, their websites and social media platforms are like a time capsule of 2005.

[@rkalla]

Really great point - the social contract extends into the day job and manifests itself in the actual output of most companies there.

[@zachmiller9189]

I lived in Japan for 2 years and I was shocked to find that many places still use Fax machines. They won't take emails and will only take documents via fax. I was also shocked that many shops don't take credit cards and only cash. I felt like I was living in the 90s at times.

[@arraikcruor6407]

What the fuck. Why are they so damn conservative. Good lord!

[@sarbeshmallick6452]

What year it was?

[@减压]

Well lots old people around they won’t be well adapted to new tech,so yeah just let it stay in the past

[@zachmiller9189]

@@减压 Then they should allow both fax and email. If they are doing it because of the old people, it's just going to get worse as Japan's population is getting older still.

[@zachmiller9189]

@@sarbeshmallick6452 2018

[@WhoIsLudwig]

I'm currently reading a book about late Nintendo's CEO Satoru Iwata's thoughts, and I was quite surprised by how much he seemed to reflect on the fact that he was a software engineer at first, and how it made him see things differently than other people around him. Now I understand better why he was thinking that way and why this was so important to him. Thanks for this video, it was quite instructive.

[@markhenley3097]

''On my business card, I am a Corporate President, in my mind, I am a video game developer, but in my heart, I am a gamer.''

[@perforongo9078]

Ever since the Wii was launched, it became pretty obvious that Software came first at Nintendo. Hardware facilitated the Software, not the other way around.

[@miketyson8933]

Dude she's missing the fact Japanese invented the best thing since nuclear energy!!! Blockchain technology that will make EVERYTHING HONEST AND FAIR, UN-CHEATABLE....BITCOIN, SATOSHI NAKAMOTO

[@DannyMexen9]

Iwata Asks

[@gwawrz1]

I was working as a software engineer for a while in a Japanese startup based in Tokyo, it was a typical Japanese company. Not well paid, free overtime, no days off. And from a technical perspective, I felt like it stepped back in time to the 90s in comparison to the US or Europe. They were conservative and really not open-minded or open to new technologies. Not worth trying imho.

[@archmad]

same, except as ux. i always got the feedback of "make it more japanese"

[@SivakD]

Finding a good, worthwhile developer job in the country is definitely not easy.

[@unggoyfarmer]

So true, it really feels like you're living in the past here.

[@PsycheOS]

Was that a matter of the founders or lack of capitalization? Startups in Japan are far far far leaner in the capitalization.

[@ryokohonda4619]

What makes the pay so low are the taxes and rents

[@guamiedinho]

I remember back in the 90s, most of the big Japanese companies were very slow to switch from analog-to-digital. They rewarded analog engineers and ignored digital engineers. Fortunately, Ken Kutargi invented the Playstation and that caused the digital hardware paradigm shift.

[@UpStreamCharlie]

I think one of the reasons why Japan will never change it because it is so hard for them to change the status quo. I recently worked for Panasonic here in the Philippines and to be honest I don't want to work for any Japanese company again. I saw first hand how they cheat their sales figures and they make this annual sales projections that were dubious and, to be honest, fictitious just to please their senior managers and they've been doing this every year prior to my employment. I asked myself, if these Japanese guys are practicing it over here, it means they are practicing it globally, too. And because their culture is male dominated, everyone is like trying to be the Alpha male in the room. Tsk tsk. I'm an outsider who got hired because their Chairman made a worldwide announcement that they will hire people from the outside to help upgrade their current talent pool (the status quo)... I was already a seasoned manager in marketing and sales and also a sales country manager for two tech companies.. prior to working with Panasonic. Being an outsider, I was not welcomed even with Filipinos who are working there since their college days. And you know what happened? We got bullied and got insulted by the long time employees and managers. And adding insult to injury... my resume and my employment contract was left seen by the public inside Panasonic... they were angry that we have higher salaries... so I guess instead being angry with management they vented their anger towards the newbies... In the end, after a year or two we resigned our post and left the company for good. i only stayed for half a year. I really had a bad experience.

[@qjtvaddict]

Japanese companies are like the US government refuse to change

[@Sanyu-Tumusiime]

@@qjtvaddict that's whfy CHina no #1

[@snuscaboose1942]

That is only your side of the story, uncorroborated anecdotal evidence at best.

[@snuscaboose1942]

@@Sanyu-Tumusiime China is only number 1 in their minds, not, in reality, a fragile regime run by 50 corrupt families, no chance.

[@Sanyu-Tumusiime]

@@snuscaboose1942 they're the only country willing to help my home country of Uganda so stfu without them our llive here would be worse and we are greatful to them.

[@larrylouraylo2711]

Great post. Mayuko is emerging as an important voice in Japanese software development. As a tech analyst in Japan during the 1999 IT Bubble, I can offer a couple of perspectives on why Japan never really tried replicating Silicon Valley. The first perspective is from a very long-term perspective on Japanese history. The narrative goes like this, "Just leave us alone. Admiral Perry and the Black Ships were a wake-up call to the need to develop our own modern military industrial complex so that we can defend our country from invasion. Despite setbacks in WW2, we successfully developed our own modern military industrial complex in the 1980's. Now, leave us alone again." The second perspective is economic. Japanese society never grasped the importance of Joseph Schumpeter's concept of Creative Destruction. Given that it takes hundreds or thousands of failed businesses to produce one Amazon or Google or Facebook, Silicon Valley embraces business failure as a learning experience. Meanwhile, Japan's tradition of life-long incremental improvement deems failure as an irredeemable personality trait.

[@londonsfinest2631]

Want to say thanks for that insightful perspective, was an interesting read mate 👍🏻

[@neutrinohanks9226]

Interesting

[@HSfox]

@@jellyfishi_ Moral and ethics? Overworking people and paying low wages is not moral or ethical. Let's just agree that they are different but there is no need to put one down over the other.

[@yudhobaskoro8033]

@@HSfox no no, u need to look back a bit, the employee "wanted" to work hard, and they dont even spend that much anyway, why bother getting a high wages if u'r not using it, and its shown at japan's deflation rate, ppl wanna work but don't wanna spend.

[@HSfox]

@@yudhobaskoro8033 and you don't think that they are saving and not spending because that is what low wages for decades has caused to do? If i know that i will always get paid little, I would have to adapt and be frugal and if things change it would take me a while to realize that there is a shift when making high wages, that i have enough savings and that the higher wages won't disappear, if that happened maybe then people will spend more.

[@0utc4st1985]

I enjoy digging up old documentaries from the 80's and early 90's talking about Japan, for example the PBS Frontline episode "Losing the War with Japan". It's really a time capsule into an era when it seemed like they had all the answers. In addition I like some of the fiction from that era, Michael Crichton's "Rising Sun" and the "War Strider" series (except the last book which was awful). The message was always that in the future, Japan would own everything and invent everything. Very fascinating since that's largely the same message we get today about China.

[@belstar1128]

Lets hope china ends up like this too.

[@ZER0ZER0SE7EN]

There has been concerns like this in the USA for a long time. Now China is going to pass us, except they way too much public debt, and have a history of alternating between being unified and fracturing into separate countries. 90% of their history is being disunified. In the 1980s Japan was going to pass up the US technologically and buy up our businesses and real estate. During the Cold War the Soviets were going to win the Space Race and cause most of the world to fall like dominoes to communism. Before that Germany was going to dominate militarily and thru high tech physics, chemistry and engineering. In the last decades of the 1800s thru first decades of the 1900s French culture was supreme: culinary, fashion, design, science. Don't forget the British Empire ruling half the world, until the independence movements. I don't see the USA falling behind any time soon with it producing 1/4 of the world's industrial output, huge agriculture, and leading in information tech.

[@duanwanglowangcha7678]

@@belstar1128 hope that's all you can do💩

[@sztypettto]

I remember that too. Animated movies, TV shows and pretty much every pop culture of the 80s and mid-90s thought of a future dominated by Japan, Japanese language, and neon light signs with Japanese on them. Irrespective of how reality turned out to be, the pop culture of the 80s and 90s sure was iconic. Not sure how many people today can comprehend the significance of getting a PlayStation, Sega, Nitendo game back then.

[@ffls2706]

@@belstar1128 with the bankruptcy of evergrande and everything else related to the economic bubble and the government's new regulations probably that's what is going to happen at the end with China

[@jnvqc]

The japanese minister responsible for cybersecurity has never used a computer...

[@someopinion2846]

You can't get more cybersecure than that.

[@restudermawan3240]

try convince greatest hacker in the world to hack him, I bet no one can.

[@HermanWillems]

@@someopinion2846 LOL

[@MJ-uk6lu]

@Pat Risberg Except he is clueless about that and likely prints moronic laws everyday.

[@dspirit2]

I totally understand what you mean. I worked 5 years in Singapore (even in US companies) as a dev before coming to the US. My childhood friend, who also works in tech, in Singapore asked me "What? You are still coding?" That pretty much sums it up. Being a dev is only meant to be a transitionary step to a manager, where the real money is, in Singapore. I think Singapore tech is more hierarchical and places less emphasis on software engineering than even Japan.

[@jj1bdx]

In many software-engineering-service (SES) companies in Japan, writing code is a job for outsourced people, not for the "proper" hired employees.

[@yongshengtay8016]

That's probably why tech in Singapore hasn't been successful 😂

[@dspirit2]

@@yongshengtay8016 My former Intern at Redmond Microsoft, who is from Singapore like me, returned to Singapore to form a startup. He couldn't find a Singaporean as his chief dev as most Singaporeans prefer to be managers. He had to hire a Japanese Software Developer instead. 😂

[@goldlilys]

I don't understand why a project manager would make more than a software developer. I mean the developers are the ones creating the app, not the project manager. An app can be done without a project manager ... the developer can manage his/her own time and project.

[@dspirit2]

@@goldlilys Unfortunately in Asia, individual contributors are treated like kids who can't get anything done without an adult holding a whip in plain sight. It is a hierarchical organization imported from the manufacturing days where workers were often uneducated and unprofessional. The system hasn't been adapted to deal with professional Software Engineering since the mentality is geared towards manufacturing and hardware.

[@mitsu.hadeishi]

One quibble: I don't think it takes a long time for things to change in Japan. I think it takes a long time for things to get to a crisis point that forces Japan to make big changes quickly. If you look back in history Japan has very often made revolutionary changes to itself; this has happened many, many times in our ancestral homeland's long history - but Japan does tend to drag its feet for a very long time until that crisis forces change. I'm not sure Japan is yet at that crisis moment. But I do think it is possible for Japan to change rapidly when the time finally does come.

[@mwanikimwaniki6801]

True. I'm waiting for the next crisis so Japan can do what it does best, rally around a cause.

[@nawab256]

Exactly, like overwork. They never even mention it until someone jumps off the roof of the company and it gets enough media buzz for them to start acting like they're going to do something and then once everyone forgets everything goes back to normal and all changes are thrown out the window.

[@mouadchaiabi]

You are absolutely right about Japan's _exceptional_ ability to change itself quickly. The most famous instance of this happening was in fact mentioned by Mayuko in this very video, it's the Meiji Reformation. Japan went from an agriculture-based Medieval society to an industry-based capitalistic powerhouse in the span of less than 30 years. As far as I know, that's the fastest and most profound change any country has ever had.

[@mitsu.hadeishi]

@@mouadchaiabi Yeah I was thinking of the Meiji Restoration and also the post-war transformation, as well as many prior changes such as the revolutionary restructuring of Japanese government during the Hideyoshi/Tokugawa transition which created a highly decentralized Japanese state which had many modern features not typically associated with feudalism in the West (some historians believe this may be partly why Japan was able to modernize so quickly). Japanese are very traditional yet oddly willing to accept rapid and sweeping changes in tradition when there comes a kind of national consensus it's (finally) time to make that change.

[@michaelleary9233]

Definitely, for instance after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, once the group comes to a consensus, things change fairly quickly.

[@matthewcoreyhall]

I just landed in Japan and will be working at a "software first" initiative called Woven Planet. I adore Japanese craftsmanship but do see where it's holding back their economic growth. Looking forward to contributing Japan's future economy!

[@miketyson8933]

Satoshi Nakamoto developed Blockchain the best technology EVER! BITCOIN! The technology is so great its uses have been hidden because it will make governments actually be fair and not corrupt, fair stock markets, fair elections! Clueless DB

[@softmechanics3130]

Craftmanship and trade skills have no place in the current world.

[@kelvinnguyen7883]

I think in Asia (especially in Japan, Korea, China and increasingly Vietnam), the prevailing wisdom is that the semiconductor industry is the primary avenue towards tech innovation and then software innovation will come as a result. In other words, the major players in hardware/semiconductor like Huawei, Samsung, Sony, ASUS, HTC etc all walked so that LINE, Mercari, TikTok, Alibaba, and Naver could all run if that makes sense.

[@Sabhail_ar_Alba]

None of the companies other than Samsung are prominent in the semiconductor industry which remains dominated by US companies and with a few exceptions (e.g. Intel) isn't even considered technology any more giving its maturity.

[@laurenth1467]

@@Sabhail_ar_Alba TSMC is a huge company in the semiconductor industry and base in Taiwan

[@Sabhail_ar_Alba]

@@laurenth1467 True, but it's a foundry i.e. doesn't own the IP it merely takes the masks from design companies such as Apple and manufactures the chips using mainly US designed and manufactured wafer processing equipment.

[@banjirjir7519]

sony almost knock out from that league what they had now?some camera sensor and playstation

[@shenpanda3277]

China has its own software industry. other countries only use US product . faang

[@hiromasah1018]

As a university undergrad student in Japan that’s currently looking for a job, this video really hit close to home. Many of us young people are well aware of all these problems and the changes that need to be made in our society. The problem is that most of us are not in a position to enact those changes. Also, as much as I really like the fact that some of us are starting to move in the right direction, at the same time I’m also worried that I might not be able to be a part of that movement. Personally, the most challenging and frustrating thing for me right now is finding the companies that are actually progressive. In the decades to come, I certainly want to be on the progressive side of society/industry, but I’m afraid that I might end up on the unprogressive side if I make a wrong choice during job hunting (就活). After all, if I get stuck in a “work 10hours a day for low wage” kind of job where I can’t work on improving my own skills, I’m probably not going to be in a position to enact change, and no progressive company would be willing to hire me when I want to switch jobs. I just hope I’ll be able to find a good job where I can help transform/modernize our society/industry.

[@VideoCesar07]

@Don Gillies I will bite and respectfully ask why you call ICEs failed technology?

[@geobot9k]

Honestly, it's looking more and more like most of these issues are failures of capitalism at scale. All capitalism means is the decisions in a company are made by the people with capital and most companies in a society are organized this way. Socialism, like the name implies, is when decisions in a company are made socially in a one worker one vote democracy and most companies in a society is organized this way. I didn't get to spend a lot of time in Japan but I got the same impression that most young people in Japan already know these issues and seem to have ideas on how to tackle them. The idea of worker owned businesses is starting to take root in America and they're working. Look up "The Real News Network co-ops" to see what I'm talking about. Few to none rich people are going to give up their decision making power on their own, it's up to us to figure out how to start these companies ourselves. Thankfully, it's easy to bring people on board when they know they're going to have an equal say and equal share in the profits.

[@blackbomber72]

@@VideoCesar07 From a simple thermodynamic perspective, their efficiency as heat engines will always be really poor. The fuel they use also is running out, and contaminates too much. Also they need far too many support systems. Mind you, electric vehicles have their own problems, such as energy storage, but they are much simpler. The fact they became so popular was that the ones making the decisions didnt want to enact change, since it would cost them billions in research, and maybe for a product the consumer would not even appreciate the difference.

[@unixtreme]

My unsolicited advice: Try to find an American company, I was very disappointed when I saw the job market here, luckily I came with an American job. Many American companies will offer you more money for your first job than companies like Nintendo pay employees that worked there for 10 years. Also you get to practice English.

[@FunnyPigRun]

Then let’s start a company! Ez

[@NierAutomata2B]

Great video Mayuko! As a software engineer in silicon valley, originally from China, I have been wondering about this topic for a long time. From the perspective of a Chinese, Japanese products used to dominate the world when hardware was king. China was far behind in the 90s and looked highly of Japan's success. But now, China has the 2nd most number of tech unicorns in the world, and some Chinese tech companies such as Tencent and Alibaba are so huge, it's mind-boggling. It seems China has leapfrogged Japan in the race of tech, but why is that? China also has a very homogenous population, a toxic work culture like Japan's (996-ICU). Although China doesn't have much political freedom, it actually has a lot of freedom in terms of what you can do professionally without much bias. Chinese people adapted fast, understood what makes money, and the labor force organically gravitated to software development and tech. Just take a look at the number of Chinese engineers in the US, I guess only India has a comparable number. The Chinese government has an official stance to encourage tech entrepreneurship in the last couple of years. It's really interesting to compare China and Japan, there are a lot of insights to be uncovered.

[@myeou1819]

The difference is nothing but huge internal population and declining one plus in general tech laggard countries don’t have to care about the negative legacy rooted in society, which costs the previous vanguard so much

[@NierAutomata2B]

@@myeou1819 This is one way of explaining it but it's definitely an oversimplification. China and Japan have lots of differences in culture and national characters that are contributing to the current state of affairs.

[@santiagorappy71]

actually even tho china has mostly "chinese" people working in tech giants, the fact that China is the size of a continent almost makes the diversity real indeed, chinese may look similar to ones eyes, but therer is people from all contexts working in those companies!

[@NierAutomata2B]

@@santiagorappy71 here I’m talking about ethnic and cultural diversity. China is quite homogeneous despite being big in size, compared to other big countries such as USA and India.

[@santiagorappy71]

@@NierAutomata2B not really, read my comment again

[@jacobshiohira]

wow, this is the most naturally authentic mayuko content ever. love all your videos, but this one was especially great. thanks for sharing!!

[@takumiJP]

I’m one of those Japanese engineer who went back to Japan after college and yah life’s not great… I didn’t have ur channel followed on my main account idky but I am now! Love all your videos and activities :)

[@narcissisticnarcissus4956]

What are the biggest disappointments and overall negative things in your life in Japan?

[@takumiJP]

@@narcissisticnarcissus4956 I’ll say the working culture doesn’t match a person who grew up outside Japan. Long hours, not much conversations, low pay, etc. I haven’t worked a full time position in the states so can’t judge hard but I don’t enjoy my job.

[@hellomayuko]

Ahh you're living my alternate universe! Thanks for subscribing and for the support! I'm sure there's a silver lining to it all. Because despite what can feel like a grim outlook towards working in Japan, it's still something I'm really curious about.

[@boycottnok1466]

@@hellomayuko Japan will slowly change, by reducing overtime and increasing salary and increasing productivity, hope you work towards it without giving up. Also all low payed slave immigration needs to be stopped. Increasing Japanese salary and they will be there in labour intensive jobs.

[@AntarixOfficial]

@@boycottnok1466 Yes , I hope this happens cause in India , we also work 14-16 hours daily , 6 days a week with no overtime pay . Japan has a lot of problems but I believe that the situation shall improve gradually

[@AhmedAliIbr]

Amazingly informative about Japanese Mindset. The making of Silicon valley is the dearning courage to take initiative and not being afraid to fail and learn from failure. With every success story in Silicon valley there are 10 unsuccessful stories.

[@martinmj94]

Particularly loved how you brought in different people to show what they think about this topic! It made it very well nuanced and kept it fresh. Was also blown away to see who you had backing this video! Keep up the awesome content as always. :)

[@MrRobotoDomo]

OMG this is so true. I do product design (ui/ux and visual) here in Japan.. and the biggest challenge for me is that not alot of people understand web tech - specially the key decision makers. It’s really frustrating. Ughhhh

[@zergslayer69]

Was watching a podcast of people living in Japan and they said websites are still stuck in the 90s design where they cram as much info as possible on the screen

[@japanstation1]

We just have to keep fighting it. Cramming everything possible with tiny text is going to disappear, eventually.

Enjoyed the video: the context, interviews, the high-level point of view, and the ending proposition. Appreciated the edit, pace, and all the extra content on the description. Amazing format. I loved it.

[@KangJangkrik]

...also nice hair transition between takes

[@Leo-fl5xi]

I subscribed to your channel last year when the pandemic started, and up until today, your content has only gotten better and better. Thank you for being here!

[@NicNico]

I can summarize the stagnation in one short phrase: stubborn old people. Japan is a strictly hierarchical society and status quo is everything. Conformity and groupthink are not only the norm, but you will be cast aside if you don't participate. This has been a huge point of contention for me while living in Japan. And what's worse, the humanitarian side of things in Japan are gravely lacking. There is this sociological notion of uchi (inside) and soto (outside) which equates in a hyper-focused in-group/out-group bias. This has lead to vast sweeping cases of discrimination and apathy vis-a-vis individual suffering. Your opinion will never be heard, and in the rare occasion it is, it will only be because some stubborn old person took ownership of your idea when their stubborn old boss lauded it in the boardroom.

[@mdjey2]

That is harmony unlike that of America where everyone is fighting each other, ready to cut others throat. This way you don't need extra rules by government. Society manages to hold everyone in line.

[@lordblazer]

@@mdjey2 this backfires badly because it leaves little room for error for young people living in Japan. When a status quo isn't sustainable, everyone is beholden to leadership to do something about it and until that happens go along with the status quo. That isn't healthy.

[@eternalobi]

Japan in general doesn't allow woman to thrive in corporate environment. You are automatically eliminating 50% of your talent pool and potential.

[@mdjey2]

@@lordblazer Thats your Western view. Why push it on others?

[@dxuhuang]

@@mdjey2 Conformity is not harmony.

[@alvincarrasca827]

I've been working in Japan for quite a long time as a Software Developer, and one thing I noticed why they are behind is mostly doesn't want to adapt to new techs. They stick with their old and obsolete ways.

[@japanstation1]

As a software dev we have to keep learning new techniques, processes, languages - use the best tool for the job. It literally demands we do that. But you are right, when someone has a hammer in their hand, everything looks like a nail. Java is still a major thing here. Gasp. If I had to guess, I'd submit that many in senior management are not keeping up with the times, so they don't want some hotshot know it all showing them up. BTW I just recently discovered Svelte, and I think it's going to be the next big step in Web development. Anyone reading this, I'd highly recommend checking it out. It's open source.

[@miketyson8933]

Clueless shill behind?? Japan is ahead of the world in every way!!! Nobody makes a better car, truck motorcycle!!! Satoshi Nakamoto developed Blockchain the best technology EVER! BITCOIN! The technology is so great its uses have been hidden because it will make governments actually be fair and not corrupt, fair stock markets, fair elections! Clueless DB

[@kazukinakamura1110]

Great video… some other points of consideration 1. Japan is terrible at international business so their brands have lost in many tech segments. In the 80s, Japan was the only supplier for many products, so they got business by default, since then everyone quickly copied and manufactured the same thing. 2. Japanese products got too expensive due to the rising Japanese wages throughout the 80s. To remain competitive, Japan had to manufacture in China and Korea to stay competitive but this also meant a transfer of technology, IP, and manufacturing know-how to those countries who can now do a better job than Japan. By doing this, all manufacturing suppliers had to now help build factories in those other countries. Btw US did the same thing. 3. As Japan started to lose market share from the early 2000s, many foreign countries, in particular China and Korea hired top Japanese engineers. Japanese engineers were able to double or triple their pay by doing this but also transferred a lot of IP and knowledge. Many workers were even moonlighting on the side, flying to China and Korea on weekends for big bucks. Totally illegal but Japan did nothing. 4. Related to the above, Japan doesn’t sue anyone or other countries for IP theft. 5. Japan always had a weak startup culture and very little venture funds. Actually Silicon Valley is one of the few areas where VCs are willing to invest ridiculous amounts of money for risky projects. Japanese culture will never allow this type of behavior. Maybe Masayoshi Son is the only one who is willing to take big risks but as you know he’s not really Japanese. 6. Japan screwed up on the adoption of 3G, they thought they could lead the standard but they ended up implementing something non-standard which meant that no international phones worked in Japan. This huge mistake meant that Japanese phones were only good in Japan even though they were way advanced during this time. Japan was way ahead on phone LCD resolution and audio. Well their OS always sucked. They even had a way to pay by swiping the phone. However, once 4G and iPhone was introduced, it was game over for Japanese phone makers. Actually Masayoshi Son helped IPhone enter Japan through SoftBank. Btw, Japan also screwed up on optical FTTH, they implemented something non standard. 7. The Japanese gov’t in many ways screwed Japan. Instead of helping Japanese tech companies consolidate manufacturing, they let them compete with each other to death. While Sony, Sharp, Panasonic, and Toshiba were fighting for LCD/LED TV market share, all of them killed each other to make room for Samsung/LG. If they would have made an alliance to jointly manufacture in Japan or use the Sharp plant, all of them would have been better off. Same could be said about memory chips, hard disks, car parts, etc. Well I could probably write a book about this so I will end here…. Thank you for the video.

[@rafski123]

good points

[@TheCyberMantis]

Japan is big on the entertainment industry now. Just as the USA used to be. ( With a strong focus on music, Anime, Manga, and Idols. )

[@kazukinakamura1110]

@@TheCyberMantis yes those are good points... their entertainment industry goes way back, so it was always big in japan and you can trace it back to kabuki (japanese theater). furthermore, think of all of the studio broadcast and film equipment... most of it was from sony and panasonic. but that was meant for the domestic market, their international business in music, movies, tv drama, and anime was never targeted at the international audience with some small exceptions. the reason why other countries watched japanese entertainment from after WW2 is because they had none themselves, they didn't have a good way of producing it. my friends from india tell me about all the japanese shows they grew up on. japan never intended for that business, it just happened because they needed content. same with manga, the international market is probably bigger than the domestic market now but that wasn't japan's intention, it just so happens that a few distribution companies receive the rights to japanese manga (30 or 40 years ago) and translated it for their own countries. most of the time, it isn't even japanese people doing that business, it's a foreigner who wanted the rights.

[@billyjean2905]

You seem... blaming totally irrelevant elements to make excuses for lagging behind. You're blaming China, Korea stealing Japenese tech more than 20 years ago, but come to think of it, start up tech industry of Japan 60-70 years ago was doing completely same. That's simple and general strategy for follower. The follower of the industry tends to catch up its leading group easily comparing to the efforts which pioneer should make. Considering United States, the cradle of modern high tech enterprises like Tesla, Apple, Nvidia, real pinoneers are always on top of the industries. However latecomer tries to break up the market, they never be beaten. The reasons Japan's lagging behind in tech industry are like more inherent ones like bad work cultures, gender inequality and political backwardness based on stiff, uptight bureaucracy, not because of the mean strategy of latecomers. Considering poor Covid vaccination of Japan, it seems that Japanese political and organizational culture of the industry of Japan is badly lagging behind. Free overtime, vertical relationship never let workers be competitive and creative, make no innovation. I'm even so shocked that Japanese officials deal with data on Covid-19 by fax and handwritten document and sending coupons for vaccination to people. Politicians are just busy to make excuses on delaying vaccination meanwhile people are on the streets waiting all night for leftover vaccines. Even infamous debt problem make these problem worse. Japanese tech enterprises and government are not afford to invest on research and development.

[@TheCyberMantis]

@@kazukinakamura1110 Good info, thanks. And yes, I remember hearing about kabuki theater. Japan is also known around the world for it's FOOD, and it's train system.

[@mitsu.hadeishi]

As a Japanese-American tech executive living in Korea, working for a US startup remotely, married to a Korean, I've been finding it really interesting to live here and observe the culture and society. Korea has many of the same problems as Japan but it seems to have a little more flexibility, a little more openness to learning from the outside world, and more acceptance of the importance of learning from Silicon Valley and in general I feel a bit more dynamism. There are ten unicorns in Korea now vs three in Japan, and while the Korean tech industry has a long way to go, there's a cultural awareness of the tech industry that goes back farther than Japan... it's quite interesting to observe for example the recent Korean drama "Start-Up", which is very well researched and covers many of the facets both good and bad of the tech industry worldwide. Well worth watching.

[@landwand]

Thanks for the K-Drama recommendation! I was avoiding it because I didn't want to watch another romance rolled up with a make-belief larger-than-life tech-start-up world, but now -- I'm going to check it out.

[@boycottnok1466]

I think Japan has more than 3 unicorns 7-8 probably. I looked at recent news from Nikkei.

[@mitsu.hadeishi]

@@boycottnok1466 Glad to hear they've added some recently but they should have 30. Or more. If Japan could really wake up and realize they have more things to learn from not only the US but even (gasp) Korea.

[@accelerator5524]

Hire me!!! Just joking, I am useless xD

[@dshyon]

I mean, Korea was recently ranked #1 in innovation. The progress the Korean tech industry has made globally just in the last 5 years makes me think they're more than just a little more flexible or a little more open to learning from the outside world. Korea regularly poaches elite foreign talents for anything related to innovation. Just look at the car industry as of late as well. Kia and Hyundai have done a complete 180 degree turn after they've poached foreign directors.

[@dshyon]

You hit it right on the nail. Just look at Japanese variety shows, they still use styrofoam boards to display information instead of using computer graphics and editing software.

[@mansukong]

It has been 10 years since I worked as a UI developer in Korea. In Korea, the treatment of programmers is very good. I didn't know Japanese software treatment would be this bad. Are Japanese IT start-ups not that good?

[@narsplace]

Part 3 has to do that most bosses in Japan are all over 60 years old with a very old way of thinking.

[@bluasterisk]

Loved to see your insight on this! I spent so much time in college asking myself if I wanted to work for a tech company here in California, but I also became very invested in Japan too. So now I'm working for a company in Tokyo, but the reality of tech in Japan was a tough pill to swallow. Hopefully the opportunities I'm looking for will come up.

[@davek4206]

Japan's obsession with conformity is so strong, a school in Kaifukan Prefectural High School in 2015 made a female student dye her hair black because she had naturally brown hair. This was even more crazy when it was found out the school had a no hair dyeing policy. Her family sued in court and the court found the school was not entirely at fault because she had natural black hair roots even though her hair is naturally brown. Namely, the court ignored reality to enforce social conformity. The court would not even countenance the idea that some Japanese people have brown hair. Change does happen and now in Tokyo there are now rules against forcing students with naturally brown hair to dye it. So, parts of Japan recognize that some of its citizens have brown hair.

[@Exascale]

I am a senior VP in the valley and we contract with 2 companies in Japan and I have to agree that the main issue is the strong culture of social conformity. Sure software not taken as seriously is an issue but from my observations the most significant factor is social conformity. Social conformity drives immense risk aversion, and prevents freedom of thought which is inculcated from birth. Most of the Exec teams I worked with also were very old men living in a gone by era. You dont see young people with drive combined with freedom of thought. The other part is that Japan recycles everything too much and there is a limit on wastefulness. I know it sounds crazy but you have to waste a lot of time, money, and break a lot of stuff to innovate. There is such a huge stigma on wastefulness inculcated into the culture. This goes against the go fast break things mentality in the valley where you will blow through millions of dollars and fail multiple times before you are successful. People in the valley embrace this mentality - people in Japan are too afraid to put it all on the line - also there is no support ecosystem so that you can innovate and not put everything on the line. Its like a cowboy mentality in a sense. To change this the government would have to do some wacky things and even then it would take 20 years to really change. First thing they would have to do is make psychadelics legal and promote a music festival culture to break people out of their reality. They would also have to support some public figures that were very popular that did crazy things in public as practical jokes in order to break through the conformist culture. They would have to utilize social media incrementally over 20 years to make the salaryman and "conforming" very "uncool". A public shaming campaign of the "Boss" and overworking would enable the gradual social reprogramming of the population. This would also have to be carefully done in schools. The tech scene in high schools and colleges would have to be completely changed with a focus on crazy projects and ideas. You really have to shake things up. Also, the population is overworked and do not get enough sleep. Creative thinking needs restful sleep and cannot be rushed. You come up with great ideas during random times relaxing - not on your 10th cup of coffee at 3 am in the morning.

[@hungtrumno]

I would love it if you could share a link on the court's final decision for this case.

[@harukrentz435]

I had brown darkish hair back when i was a teenager, my high school teacher thought i had dyed my hair and want to cut my hair (that was the punishment for deliquent in my country, lol) funny thing is that my hair is all black now.

[@Lestibournes]

You wouldn't know it from manga and anime...

[@waleedabbas4996]

@@Exascale This just completely ignores the social implications and the unrest created for short term gain. The US is in the midst of a cultural/social war with increasing animosity between the groups. Hardly an environment conductive for long term state stability.

[@franciscopresencia843]

I've been living in Japan 5+ years (you interview 2 people I know!) and found this video very insightful! I didn't think so much of the divide between hardware vs software as to the cause of technological stagnation, but in retrospective it's definitely true! There are so many other reasons, but many of them even circle back to this again, like culture of overwork; it's known the more hours you work, the more productive you are in mechanical tasks (making physical things) BUT the less productive you are in creative tasks (like software)

[@yuka]

A little late to the party, but great video Mayuko! So much research and insights👏 Thanks for including my pov😊🌱

[@hellomayuko]

Yay thank you for your insights Yuka!!!

[@carnyharhar]

I really enjoyed this! It makes me exciting about working in tech and the kinds of problems we can tackle on a higher, macro level. Makes me feel hopeful and excited, especially after a day of making sure some buttons line up correctly...

[@dannymartial7997]

America focuses on software whereas Japan focuses on hardware. We have Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant, and Siri, etc... Every American website has a complex algorithm, and I can go on and on... But in Japan, they don't have any of that; they focus more on the automatic toilets, the vending machines, and the conveyor belt sushi restaurants. It all boils down to hardware vs software. So in a way, we're both technologically ahead of each other, just in different avenues of tech.

[@miketyson8933]

Software lol yea ok, try lasers and FUSION ENERGY!!!! YOU CLUELESS TURDS

[@StmmtDas]

Even though not many Japanese do not know about this, Japan is one of the most difficult countries for foreigners to reside due to strict visa requirement for PR or long stay visas which is part of the reason why Japan is homogenous country. US, European countries, AUS etc have attracted skilled migrants across the globe which has not been seen in Japan. Success of Tech industries could also depend if there is more support from the government not only financially but also by changing governmental regulations / policies.

[@loveableweirdo9335]

I (foreigner) grew up in Japan and I 100% agree. Many Japanese schools and workplaces have very strict formal and informal rules about who is welcome. My school was full of mixed-race kids who weren't allowed to go to their local public school (members of my own family included). I love Japan, but there's no easy future there for many foreigners, and I'm sure that scares top tech talent away. I don't know if welcoming migrants is the answer to Japan's tech problem, but I believe they'd see more innovation if the government made it easier to hire talent from other countries.

[@JS2123-m9x]

I moved in 2019 with a student VISA (language school) because I wanted some language grasp before working in Tokyo. After that was really easy get a sponsorship from a workplace and in my experience almost (to be honest I may have seen 1 workplace that couldn't) every workplaces can/want sponsorship you. If someone can't get a sponsorship for a very specific reason (one is not having a degree), that person can always self sponsorship themselves quite easily, having a JLPT N4 is the major requirement, which is quite basic and doable in 1y of studies. Isn't a idicllic scenario but can be achieved with some effort.

[@AssadJawaid]

@@JS2123-m9x all the job postings I've come across say JLPT 2 is the bare minimum for most non teaching careers, even in Tokyo. It's tough, but we gotta make these people change and realize they're behind in the world now.

[@JS2123-m9x]

@@AssadJawaid A lot of dev roles do not require high Japanese. Often don't even require any, since the teams are multicultural. This could be true for other roles as well, for example I work as Senior Product Designer and have a barely functional N3. I agree on openness and the importance of English (outside Japan as well, mind you) but is *very* important that foreigners that want to work and live in Japan are willing to learn the native language of the society they chose to be in. The reasons are several and not just the 2-3 years of gap in development, and this comes from a product designer, where product design (digital, at least) is easily 10 years behind USA&EU.

[@PhilippBlum]

Japans problem is the culture. It is an extreme nationalistic country. They would be better off, if they would open their barriers. But it's so deeply embedded in the culture, it is not going to happen.

[@jeromemckenna7102]

I have 2 Japanese made ham radios, they are excellent and very rugged. Updating firmware for them is a pain. Their software for doing some tasks on the internet looks like it was designed in 1990. It misses important features - if you able to communicate on the internet it should allow you to log your contacts automatically. What is so surprising is that Japanese ham radio operators are among the best and most enthusiastic in the world, so there are lot of folks in Japan who could easily figure out what other users need,

[@arvindkanesanrathna3698]

I love the transition tune that plays between each section of the video. Reminds me of the bell that used to ring during my high school exchange in Japan.

[@hanusiddhanth7952]

Love how detailed and well-narrated this was! I was just doing a term paper on this topic and you gave me so much insight. Thanks Mayuko!

[@trevorjennings4823]

That Innovation program is really cool, seems very high quality. I'm a data scientist who's studying Japanese language so your videos were a natural fit for my feed. If anyone had interest in collaborating part-time, I'm particularly interested in the healthcare or deep learning for robots stuff (as talked about in the videos). Feel free to DM me and we'll look into it more.

[@mwanikimwaniki6801]

Interesting stuff that I am interested in.

[@rajdoshi561]

One important historical event I think you missed that may have impacted software in Japan was the 1990's bubble and the Asian Financial Crash of 1997. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the Bank of Japan(BoJ) passed a series of reforms where it became much easier to have access capital and lowered interest rates this led to more borrowing, and investments over that period of time in essence one can look at the 1980's in Japan as synonymous to the Roaring 20's, there were large per capita GDP increases I think Japan by 1990 was 1.5 - 2 x per capita income of the United States, the stock market had reached record highs, housing prices in Japan had risen out of control, if I'm not mistaken it is said that the Tokyo's Imperial Palace had the same real estate value as that of the entire state of California, where as Tokyo had the same real estate value of the entire real estate value of the United States, but overtime the BoJ realized that this growth was unsustainable, in measures to control inflation interest rates were raised, but this caused the economic bubble to pop in the 1990's sparking the Japanese "Lost Decade", which saw many lose savings and economic turmoil. The next big problem was the 1997 Asian financial crisis which starts in Thailand as the Thai currency the , Baht, if I'm not mistaken gets devalued to the dollar and the bursting of Thai economic bubble, this spreads across many Southeast and East Asian economies, in particular Japan. Japan was one of the biggest holders of foreign currency during this period and saw a large devaluation of the Yen, alongside a decrease in exports. Overall these economic problems of the 1990s and led to a bleak outlook for the Japanese economy, alongside restrictions to access to credit, I may hypothesize it wasn't the best environment to start a software boom where as the 1990s and early 2000s that saw the beginning of American tech companies.

[@waltciii3]

America's tech boom was ramping up in the 70s and 80s with MS and Apple. Japan was doing excellent in the 80s but only with consumer appliances and cars. By the 90s it was too late, the growth markets were software and internet based. HW is nice but what can you do with it? Japan was like old IBM and only cared about developing hardware, while MS and other US companies did the interfaces and software. Modern IBM had to reinvent itself as a services company and is now relevant in the business world. Some of Japans old "boomer" companies need to die off to allow new blood to flourish.

[@mattybreeze1422]

This is what I was thinking, I'm sure there was plenty of entrepreneurs and established businesses saying "I want to start a new buisiness/ we want to venture into this up and coming software industry and need capital, trust me it's going to be HUGE!" but the response from Japanese banks who were basically lending to no one after the crashes being "Right now? are you crazy? no way, far too risky" I'm sure japan could have been a software superstar if the timing had been different.

[@sirplease182]

From my experience at a Japanese tech company, people usually worked much slower than the US (hence all the overtime) and had a lot of difficulty making decisions, which led to a series of endless meetings. Work culture's gotta change.

[@haha-eg8fj]

There are not many choices. They dont have as big market as the US tech giants. Every piece of software built in Japan is for Japanese market. And 1/3 of Japanese people, the elderly, would never try a new software product. When you make a bad decision, it's harder to recover than its US counterparts.

[@SianaGearz]

I don't know, low productivity and paralysis epidemic by meetings is a common problem elsewhere too, it has been becoming an issue in USA and Europe just the same in major companies, where everything needs a meeting, and engineers end up spending half the time in meetings. This is unproductive, people get to listen at length about things that concern others but not them, and usually they have nothing to contribute. This kind of communication would work best with preparation and conclusion in written form, where others can just skim it when they want, and where then only people invite themselves who have something relevant to contribute to the topic. Engineering activity requires deep engagement with complex matter and doesn't really forgive mistakes, and a meeting disrupts that and wastes a good amount of time after to get back into the groove of things.

[@japanstation1]

@@SianaGearz Truly insightful comment. You have absolutely hit the nail on the head. The disruption to thought processes and general engagement in an engineering task is painful when you have to sit through a long drawn out meeting, where it is clear people are still deciding things they should decided before the meeting. Trying to explain this to a non engineer is difficult at best. It is virtually impossible in a culture where people will think you think you are special if you don't attend because of the time limits you have and the slow to crawl the meeting causes to your work. Then people get a chip on their shoulder that you think you are special (when you merely have your priorities straight). So... you attend...

[@mdjey2]

I heard German work culture is the most effective and also very strict.

[@pastmemories1035]

The numerous conferences in Japanese companies are for evading responsibility.

[@daverosenthal3975]

1. Kaizen is based on the perfectibility of products and service, and as an ideology is somewhat antithetical to innovation 2. Entrepreneurship is difficult in a culture that values the name of the company on the business card more than the qualifications of its bearer 3. Unless you are talking about marketing strategy, "Diversity" has a suspicious place in this discussion; it does not enhance technical development, it is only the incidental byproduct of a more intelligent talent-recruiting process.

[@Summerpopradio]

I think this is one of the very best videos you've ever made Mayuko. I loved it!!! Thank you so much for share. It is a very interesting topic. I think Japan really needs to open a little bit to the world outside. I often see that senior positions in japanese companies are held by older gentlemen. They definitely needs fresh air!

[@miketyson8933]

Wrong more-on Satoshi Nakamoto developed Blockchain the best technology EVER! BITCOIN! The technology is so great its uses have been hidden because it will make governments actually be fair and not corrupt, fair stock markets, fair elections! Clueless!!! Watch who makes the powerful lasers and FUSION ENERGY!!!!

[@amizan8653]

This history lesson of Japan and what they're doing to approach the problem they're dealing with of falling behind was pretty interesting.

[@docdoom44]

One thing I have noticed about many videos discussing Japan is that they often come loaded with this sentiment that the culture is a strong influence on its "issues". Interestingly culture is often not attributed to other countries in the same way. I wonder why that is. It often strikes me as emphasizing that Japan is somehow this foreign mystery, that's culture is hampering its development. While this video it gives the example of software being considered icky as a career and the cultural aspect of physical perfection is reasonable. I wonder if there are some other more straightforward barriers to entry, like language accessibility in foreign markets, higher costs to startup etc. I like the video, I guess I imagined it would have a more holistic approach than the typical Japanese culture is the biggest barrier towards [insert phenomena]

[@karld1791]

I taught English in Japan and later worked for a Japanese tech company from America with frequent business trips to Japan - making software for radiology imaging. Japan's strength was hardware more than software and software became the driver of technology.

[@njwojc16]

Having lived in Japan for four years, there is still a fear of foreigners and what they bring to the culture (good and bad). So Japan will never attract foreigners with their new ideas. Also there is cultural shame if you try something and fail. In the US, the number of failures is a sign of your determination.

[@arnvonsalzburg5033]

"shame of failure" is something that's done in Germany, too, unfortunately. Our entire rentirement system is based on people working in other peoples company, paying for like an insurance, therefore freelancers, self-employed workers etc. are ridiculed. If you failed as an entrepreneur no one is gonna trust you again.

[@OGBhyve]

Glad to see Japan recognize their mistakes and take steps to correct. I've always admired their craftsmanship roots and I'd love to see those principles applied to Software.

[@miketyson8933]

Satoshi Nakamoto developed Blockchain the best technology EVER! BITCOIN! The technology is so great its uses have been hidden because it will make governments actually be fair and not corrupt, fair stock markets, fair elections! Clueless!!! Watch who makes the powerful lasers and FUSION ENERGY!!!!

[@oiocha5706]

Japan innovated itself into a tech giant and economic giant without being ethnically diverse. Now so is South Korea, China, and many others, so I don't think there's anything particularly magical about diversity. If anything , ethnic diversity appears to be irrelevant.

[@rany6542]

Just imagine if Japan put in all the craftsmanship into software development what awesome software we could have! The gaming industry seems to be doing fine still and I wonder why

[@coolfer2]

Actually, even the gaming industry is kinda falling behind compared to Western counterpart. I live in south east asia, and I grew up with basically Japanese games (like consoles and stuff). But nowadays, like Mayuko said, Japanese games and entertainment products in general, are increasingly disappearing from my life. They don't see values in PC gaming, their games kinda follow the same formula over and over again, and they don't see values in entertainment services like Spotify, or Netflix, and so on. Many of their gaming companies stubbornly cling to the console gaming market, and make their games console exclusive (which makes sense now, seeing how they value hardware higher than software). Only in recent years, that some of their biggest game companies tested the waters that is PC gaming market, and saw how valuable the market is. Even then, I found their pricing strategies still weirdly expensive compared to Western companies, like I actually feel that they don't see PC market is worthwhile if they cannot charge an arm and leg for their games. That's why they lose their competitive edge, while more and more companies around the world actually create more accessible and wildly creative games.

[@bm1259]

@@coolfer2 Recently, Altlus recently released Nocturne remaster on steam and did Persona 4 Golden too. Hopefully this picks up more in the future.

[@coolfer2]

@@bm1259 But that's what I was talking about. It's an HD remaster of an old game, not even a remake. But they are still charging as if it's a new game. Meanwhile, Shin Megami Tensei V is coming only on Switch. I think in these Japanese companies mindset, the games are created to support the consoles sales. It's not just a "platform" for them. Console sales is the "objective", idk. I can give another example. You see, there are a lot of spiritual successors of Final Fantasy Tactics in Steam right now. Compare the prices, Japanese games like Octopath Traveller costs like $60 while most other games are like $30 . And do we need to mention games like DOA, Tekken, with their crazy DLC schemes. Idk, man. I think it's also because these Japanese games are all created by big corporations, hence the crazy pricing. Wish there could be more smaller Japanese companies out there to bring some competition.

[@bm1259]

@@coolfer2 Yeah and another thing is that whos going to try and bring other the smaller stuff anyway. Smaller companies probably arent going to pay for things like localization and translations

[@RoyalKnightish]

@@coolfer2 What?? Japan's gaming has been going strong, even making their own innovative genre like souls games. Nintendo switch has sold pretty nicely, even way better than Xbox, and some of the games there are selling like hotcakes. SE Asia have shit currencies (except for Singapore), which is why no consoles nor games can perform well there. I think it is a poor indicator if you wanna bring up Japan's falling in term of entertainment industry (which is false). You mentioned that Japan games used to be popular in your country back in 90s and early 2000s. That was because those games could be pirated sooo easily and sold very cheaply. Western gaming (especially US) also stagnate in term of innovation. It is just another COD game and shit AC games every fukin year.

[@matthewschmidt5548]

One thing to consider is the fact that most consumer electronics from early era tube technology to 60s era transistor tech was mostly only made available to Japan because the UK and the US sold access to their patents because by the 60s (and earlier for tube tech) the US and UK deemed these to be antiquated tech. The Japanese consumer electronic industry boomed on tech that was already consider obsolete and the Military Industrial complex had long since moved on to the things we see Fang doing today which is also already quite obsolete compared to the bleeding edge.

[@ADevStory]

Really amazing video! Being a recent KZbinr made me value so much more your videos. Really amazing job, you interviewed several interesting people, provided good facts and data, and presented your own opinion. So much work! And you are able to present it so naturally and fun. Great work. Keep it up!

[@saraito3675]

I am a system engineer in Japan and working for a Japanese company and all your guesses are TRUE!!! I like my job itself but I’m barely surviving in the toxic work culture! What’s the working environment like in American IT companies?

[@ridwan552]

Look up videos on life as a Facebook or a Google employee

[@Wewereneveryoung]

Don't just look up culture in FAANG companies, wouldn't be an accurate overall picture

[@zionen01]

In US, I've been in both sides of the coin in software, places where you're worked to death and places where you're a first class citizen and treated as such. The one thing though is you're probably going to get paid well otherwise you can easily jump ship, and many people do. I think that keeps management a bit on their toes when they try to take advantage of software people, sure they can demand a lot of work but they have to pay up.

[@hellomayuko]

In the U.S., it really depends on a few factors: things like size of the company (i.e. 10 employees vs 1000), location (i.e. Silicon Valley vs San Diego, CA, etc), industry (i.e. fintech vs social media vs healthtech, etc), and how long a company's been around for (1 year vs 30 years). But largely if we're thinking about The Silicon Valley Tech Company on average, the work is definitely demanding and things like hustle culture and 40+ workweeks are not uncommon, but it's definitely less hierarchical than Japanese companies, and employees are encouraged to be autonomous in their work and suggest new ideas often!

[@miketyson8933]

Lying more-on n clueless shill, Satoshi Nakamoto developed Blockchain the best technology EVER! BITCOIN! The technology is so great its uses have been hidden because it will make governments actually be fair and not corrupt, fair stock markets, fair elections! Clueless DB

[@strategy_gal]

This is such a great and informative video about Japan's tech industry! The INNO-vation program sounds promising. Looking forward to see how it works out!

[@cjoe6908]

Thanks for this info. I am getting somewhere about why my Toyota Rav4, a great car mechanically, uses infotainment systems that look and work like they were designed and made about 15 years ago.

[@arvindkanesanrathna3698]

Great points! I worked in one of Japan's large corporations as a new grad engineer before moving to the US to pursue further studies and look for opportunities in tech industry here. So I have a perspective of both places as well. But I feel, things are changing in Japan too, albeit slowly. I worked in a software R&D department in the Japanese company. The work culture was actually quite relaxed. Work timings were flexible and normal working hours. Overtime was also paid. I also did not face any discrimination or uchi-soto behavior for being a non-Japanese in a primarily Japanese workplace. And guess what, my team also used the latest tools globally in the industry, so I was able to grow highly transferrable skills.

[@miketyson8933]

Satoshi Nakamoto developed Blockchain the best technology EVER! BITCOIN! The technology is so great its uses have been hidden because it will make governments actually be fair and not corrupt, fair stock markets, fair elections! Clueless!!! Watch who makes the powerful lasers and FUSION ENERGY!!!!

[@Jack-rr9nh]

The reason why Japan entered it's stagnation is two words: Trade War US went to trade War with Japan in the 80s and won, ending Japan's low fixed rate currency. President Reagan imposed a 100 percent tariff on Japanese-made computers, television sets and power tools. Well simply put I would say he was the main reason.

[@mimichaten]

US targeted Japanese supercomputers, semiconductors, commercial satellites and even operating systems such as Tron. US won. Japan conceded. Then, the country fell behind and China takes over the place. Along with Japanese currency rate management and central banking policy, China studied Japan on this trade conflict well. They will never concede on the current trade war.

[@jacoblitchfield2527]

@@mimichaten Wrong, I work in the Semiconductor industry and in there, I have a front row view of how not only did the Japanese win, they are still winning but Americans are totally oblivious to it. Let me give you an example, in 1975 there were over 30 LCD Semiconductor companies that existed in the US and none in Japan. The Technology was developed in the US, but MITI (Ministry International Trade and Industry) Required that all Japanese firms must have at least 1 LCD line in operation and by 1980. By 1990, There was 20 LCD Companies in Japan and only 1 left in the US, which sold to the Department of Defense. It was a total bloodbath, and most of the Semiconductor firms in the US Right now are afloat due to products that are considered dual use, which means they cant be manufactured abroad due to potential military applications. Now here is where it gets interesting, Americans congratulate themselves on the whole entire Trade War and Currency Rate agreement. That was all on the surface. What the Japanese realized is that if your brands are all over the place, like Sony, Sharp, NEC, Nikon, etc, people begin to attack you because they feel threatened. So what Japan did after 1990, which is fucking amazing brilliant is that they transitioned from Consumer Products to Value-Added Components and Industrial Products. Which are very imporant but not visible to the public eye. You mentioned that Japan conceded. Correction, they pretended to conceded. Since they basically ran most component manufacturers out of business, they were now offering their components to American companies for them to brand as their own. And these were the High-Value Added Components. So whenever I hear that Japan is Dead or Lost because you never see Japanese products anymore, my response is, you have a Sharp Screen, Sony Camera, and Toshiba Memory in your pocket right now - the IPhone. And Those are the most value added components. Even the other components which are made by American companies, for example, my company makes a specific microchip used in the Iphone that they brand as "American Made". Our manufacturing line, 60 percent of the Toolsets are from Japan, and virtually the most critical ones: Such as Nikon, Hitachi, Seiko and the Semiconductor Material is sourced from Japan as well. 30 percent is from Germany and 10 percent is American. Nikon's most profitable divison is no longer Cameras but Semiconductor Lithography and Etching. Im sorry, but I cannot say how under these circumstances the US Won Anything. And this is not just with Semiconductors, I have worked with people in the Auto, Aviation, Electronics industries and they will all tell you the same circumstances they have seen. Open your GM car and find tons of components manufactured by Toyota, Honda, or Mitsubishi connected manufacturers. Open your Dell or HP laptop and find most of the components manufactured by NEC and Murata. The question is why does this matter? The reason why Japan succeded was not due to chance or miracle, its because of Comprehensive Long term Planning with a Mutual Public-Private relationship between the Keiretsu and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, allowing for them to engage in Technical Based Continuous improvement and coordiation between the companies to basically target and destroy American companies (One MITI Employee told me once that they had a Strategy nicknamed "Deathu Stawru"). The US is a Neoliberal Financial based society that has no concept of long-term government planning and allows its companies to beat the shit out of each other while being run into the ground by foreign competitors. If the US seriously thinks with Tarrifs and Sanctions, they are going to win, the answer is that they havent in the past 40 years and the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting a different result. Proof: I Work in the Semiconductor industry and worked at various times with Nikon, Murata, EDS (Ross Perot Company) and also have studied Japanese Kaizen and the History of MITI. Read Chalmers Johnson, Michael Sekora, and Clyde Prestowitz books to understand how Japanese companies actually operate and why Americans didn't get it then and why they havent changed at all.

[@Monsterpala]

According to other analysts the reason for their stagnation is the crisis their own central bank created by inflating the real estate market with tons of cash (may order may not sound familiar) to bring down their post war economy system and transfer to the capitalist free market. Numbers don't suggest a great success there. China will haven taken notes about that and a pretty similar story in South Korea as well.

[@jacoblitchfield2527]

​@@Monsterpala The Numbers you mention are total garbage. I have spoken to many so-called analysts who have made similar analysis for Japan's performance. They become silent when I mention that majority of Value-Added Components, Firmware, and the critical toolsets in our manufacturing industries are from Japan. The company I worked for, which is a Major Supplier for Apple and prides itself as American Made, 60 percent of the Toolsets are from Japan, 30 percent from Germany and 10 percent from the US. Americans saying that Japan "Lost" shows how oblivious they are that Japan has us by the balls. The country with the highest foreign direct investment in the US is not China, but Japan. To this day, South Korea and China are not even in the top 10. Btw, South Korea is a Carbon copy of Japan, due to Park Chung-Hee Japanophile reorganization of the Government, which largely exists today and a similar thing can be said about the Chaebol's of Korea as well manufacturing most value added components through companies like Samsung, POSCO, and Hyundai Industrial.

[@destituteanddecadent9106]

@@jacoblitchfield2527 I would have dismissed this as your average yt comment conspiracy theory, but you give an oddly convincing, well-supported argument... Where can I read up on this?

[@Werpet7]

They need to fix nightmares like opening a bank account, renting a property as a foreigner, credit cards and finally "only japanese allowed" places. I will love to move there and I study computer science but those issues are just too much. ( I fell in love with Aomori)

[@subpop2005]

"only japanese allowed places" do not take it bad. It's not racist. Maybe the worker do not speak english or they think the service will not be appropriate for foreigner...

[@lordblazer]

Aomori on the tip end of Tohoku ain't nothing there, but cold, snow and misery.

[@lordblazer]

@@subpop2005 that's patronizing AF to assume a foreigner can't speak, even if they can't, so what? This is me in my American perspective where this kind of discrimination is illegal. A Japanese coming to America does not deal with this, and if they do, they can get legal recourse. Foreigners in Japan do not have these options. Having lived in japan myself(Beppu) I know the restrictions on foreigners is insane. When looking at the US and how we allow immigrants to start businesses, and have spaces, and not allow businesses to discriminate. A legal system that isn't 100% biased against them. It's not an equitable situation. I tell every American to be prepared to deal with crazy roadblocks. A lot of Japanese only see you as an English teacher even after the learning the language. If you're an engineer you'll find it extremely difficult to even access an industry job in your field. It's why Japan is rated so low by expats as a place to live. Japan will need to figure out how to better adapt in a global economy with a global workforce.

[@subpop2005]

@@lordblazer I agree with you 100 %. In Japanese mind a foreigner can not understand japanese stuff. I'am European (white) and i was living in NYC. One night with friends (european), we did not know what to do so we tryed to enter in Chinese bar in Brooklyn to drink beer cause we where near the asian block. We were correct, no thug, just office employees etc.. The security guy, a black man told us he could not let us enter because people inside would feel uncomfortable We said ok, we understand and we left the place...

[@kennhwang4188]

+1 on Part 3 - Software as second class. Particularly UI design. A lot of Japanese tech products tend to fanciful, intentionally impenetrable interfaces that are intended to look "futuristic" or "complex." Contrast this to Apple, which tends to be more Design-first. UI, and even more, UX is everything.

[@galpratama]

But surprisingly Japanese people love using iPhones o_o

[@patchoulidaze7193]

@@galpratama because of simple UI UX

[@aznprodigy17]

Should look up what happened to Toshiba in the 80s when Japan was the 2nd biggest economy, and what happened to France's Alstrom. What is happening to China, happened to Japan 30 years ago in terms of vying for technological advances.

[@PsycheOS]

This is explained by economics, Industry incumbents rent-seek and then push for regulatory capture, killing competition and innovation - often in the name of "safety" or "protection" or "fairness". It's universal.

[@LouisSubearth]

Didn't both Toshiba and Alstom faced repercussions from America for their nuclear power plant systems and were eventually forced to sell shares if not their entire divisions to US companies due to "national security concerns?"

[@PsycheOS]

@@LouisSubearth a Toshiba group that made high precision milling machines (to create submarines propellers) did. There was another regarding semiconductors but cold war was over when it started. Not sure on nuke one.

[@PsycheOS]

The issue is also, "you enemy is not mine". For instance, the US is adversarial to Iran. Israel has pushed to boycott Iran yet secretly bought below priced Iranian oil for decades. Japan has no issue with Iran. Why would I be told where I can sell, but you set the rules, and sell where you want? Zero reciprocity.

[@PsycheOS]

@@Carthodon This is very universal behavior it appears or at least it is among those that rise to the top (their neurology / personalities) to rent seek/ reg cap. This is what has hurt India for so long.

[@hdjfjd8]

Japan only fell behind in civilian technology ,but has constantly risen in industrial technology where today it is an absolute leader

[@Oomoji_T]

As a Japanese teenager, after I watched this video and read some comments here, I felt like my life as a Japanese has no hope and future.😊😊😊

[@rollins7140]

The production value of her videos have increased drastically overtime.

[@atsu8594]

Thank you for making this video, mayuko-san!! Japan is facing many difficulties right now. I think we need to change our thought about software and the Japanese education system as well. Japanese education is that we have to follow what their parents and teacher said, then we can not think by ourself. That education takes opportunities to think by themselves. why do rich people send their children to the US to study? the answer is clear. I'm sad.

[@pastmemories1035]

In Japan plain officie workers and IT specialists are paid the same, of course Japanese salaries are very low even if we consider seniority issues. In Korea, IT workers are now very well paid although it wasn't that way in the '90s. In Japan there is only basic level of reward for loyality itself ,not for special capabilities. There are many jobs in Japan especially in domestic distribution such as food sales because of lack of automation. Japan is a good place for individuals, especially men, who have only basic talents and capabilities(such as excel) but are very loyal but Japan is definitely not a place for talented ones with outstanding skills, especially digital related ones Now there are professional opinions that Japan is a former developed country.

[@alankwanHI]

Great video! I've been an IT person for my entire professional career (30+ years). I remember when I was young (early 80s), there was this Japanese term called .... dennu kids (I think, electronic brain kid, a la computer kids)... but it wasn't a good term. It carried a similar connotation of otaku. It was a geeky thing and it wasn't "normal". So even back in the 80s, the signs were already there.

[@DanielHartz]

This helps me understand the Sony Xperia phones throughout the years sooooo much. They always had amazing hardware...and were running an ancient version of android...

[@shotanet888]

Thank you for clearing my mind! The phrase you said "software is second class." is so true and hit me as a Japanese WEB engenieer. .I totally agree this topic.

[@TF-qt3jh]

Mayukoさん　初めてチャンネルを拝見しました。私は、アメリカと日本のデュアル・シチズンです。日本で生まれ教育を受け、その後アメリカに渡りMBAを取り、マネジメントコンサルティングファームで勤務、というのがあらかたのバックグラウンドです。 あなたが今回触れたすべての事柄に関しての主な原因は、日本では、①古い世代の人材がビジネス界においてまだ力を持っている、②異物を嫌う、③ (神道の影響?)「間違いは悪だ」と言う姿勢が強い、④権威に対して弱い、などだと思います。 具体的には; ・日本がハードウェアよりの思考しているのは事実で、それは多くの会社で1980年頃のまだ日本がハードウェアで世界を牛耳っていた時代を知っている人が力を持っているからだと思います。 ・これまでの常識を覆すようなビジネスモデルを考えていても、インベスターが横並び志向でなかなか投資しようとしない。 ・小さな頃から「間違いをしないこと!」を刷り込まれているので(もちろんこの姿勢は、1970年代、日本が製造業のトップだったときには好ましい要因として働きました)、なかなか大きなリスクを取ろうとはしない。 ・統計を見てもわかるように、100年以上の歴史を持つ日本企業の比率はアメリカの比でなく、このことは逆に「新しい企業がなかなか大きくなれない」を示しています。大学の新卒生の就職希望先企業リストを見ても、大きくて安定している企業がトップに名を連ねています。「長い物には巻かれろ」と言うわけです。今回のAnti-trust bill to break up giant firmsのような提案は、日本では現れないでしょうね。 イノベーションにおける政府の取り組みは、評価できる部分があるかと思います。ただ、政府がこのような取り組みをしたのは初めてではないと思います。今度こそは成功するように、命をかけてやっていただければと思います。

[@12kenbutsuri]

My database science teacher at my university told me (in 2012) that japan is more than 50 years behind western countries in database development. It made since sense most japanese people never touched a computer before, but relied heavily on mobile phones already in the 90s, and even before that, companies never considered setting up a database system. It was so bad that my computational physics course, the teacher literally how to show how to turn on a computer.

[@sacdaabdurhman]

“Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.” Sharing some love from a small KZbinr

[@StormriderVarskil1]

Thanks for the video and learned a lot. I would say that as a Filipino, I had a chance to work as a software engineer in Japan many years ago, but the stumbling block is that I had to learn Nihonggo before I could do so. My suggestion to their INNO program is that they can encourage more diversity if they just allowed people from overseas who speak only global languages like English.

[@hellomayuko]

The language barrier is definitely something that came up in my interviews, for sure. It's interesting though that there are more companies that are using a hybrid approach for languages so that neither side are excluded. The INNO-vation program definitely invites english speakers to be a part of the program! They have folks in the program who are fluent in both.

[@DengueBurger]

It also makes some sense that a country with a generally older population would value tangible, less fragile things. Especially having gone through a really rough bubble burst. Nice that the youth are willing to experiment with stock-trading, cryptocurrencies, etc. Risk-aversion is huge, indeed. Japanese folks (with lots of money) generally focus on return of capital rather than return on capital; just looking at investment in the stock market as opposed to money held in bank/savings accounts. Japanese banking/bureaucracy is seriously inconvenient. Same with how they see WFH.

[@coffeedudeguy]

Wow, Kadokawa seems to be in a lot of things these days. A lot of Japanese websites can use some major improvement, especially navigation. I hear online banking especially can be improved. Prime minister Suga seems to be pushing for a digital upgrade on the government side, let’s see how that turns out

[@haha-eg8fj]

I dont think anything would change.

[@Deneteus]

I like how yall skipped over the fact that the bubble happened.

[@itsbeyondme5560]

Y'all . That was the big factor

[@Deneteus]

​@@bgyw You don't have to be an expert to watch a documentary on the last 50-100 years of Japanese history.

[@fahrankamili7931]

You don't have to be an a*s about it though

[@2qfiwefm9w]

really good explaining how software industry in japan. as non japanese, i was confused about japan. many "why why" in japanese persepective about software. now its all clear to me. really good video Mayuko 👍

[@ScottJWaldron]

Nice video! Makes a lot of sense why they focus on tangible objects. I see it in the camera industry. Japanese companies still have a strong presence, but companies in China and Korea are getting more into it. The major Japanese companies have seemed to struggle a bit on the firmware side for a long time but have recently started changing with the advent of mirrorless cameras, which have a lot more emphasis on software compared to DSLRs. Now sometimes cameras will get firmware updates that add features instead of just fixing problems, which is nice.

[@WeAreBikeScouts]

We're actually in the process of submitting our application for this event. I'm hoping we'll get the chance to be a part of it because we've been planning to roll-out in Japan before the pandemic and this might be a good avenue for us to do that. Speaking of Silicon Valley, I love the innovation and accomplishments of Silicon Valley (as a collective) but I hope Japan's tech innovation remains separate from the SV version for one reason: Japan has always been known to be a country of people that always prioritize others over self. To what extent that's true, I don't know since I'm not an expert on Japan. I do have a lot of friends and have a number of clients there and my experience with them so far affirms that my perception of Japan rings true. Silicon Valley, on the other hand, is all about growth at all costs, pivot, and fail fast which is why it has always been like a bull in a china shop - SV is strong and powerful but it also breaks a lot more things than it builds. It's not obvious when you're sitting in SV itself talking to people whose world-view is shaped by the vision that's shared about "making a difference" and "changing the world," but in reality none of those things actually matter on the other side of the world - where I live. I think Japan has the capacity and the resources to become its own version of SV that retains its cultural propensity to favor mindfulness (to some degree) and responsibility for society rather than "Unicorns-at-all-cost" and other fantastic beasts that's always part of the colorful SV vocabulary that tends to gloss over the real-world consequences of careless ideas that always prioritize self, individual profit, and fame. I'm sorry if I have such a negative view of SV, I live in a part of the world where most of the consequences of careless ideas mean life and death for people on a daily basis.

[@francoislechanceux5818]

Lol. Thank God you are not significant enough to decide the progress of the world. BTW, you should try russia. You won't have a negative view of the high tech environment there. Precisely because they take no risks and make no innovations whatsoever.

[@jennyly6532]

Surprised you didn't mention Rakuten where it's considered to be the Amazon of Japan. Their goal is to be number one internet company in the world. They've branched out to many segments after acquiring Ebates, Viber, Kobo, Viki, etc. Any thoughts on their impact?

[@scooooter]

i'm just speaking of what i heard so plz take it with a grain of salt but ppl say the working environment is crap at Rakuten 🤦

[@jj1bdx]

Rakuten has a chronic problem of being unable to comply with regulatory standards in Japan, including the issues of their cellular network service with Telecom Ministry of Japan (MIC), and allowing Tencent as a major shareholder of Rakuten which caused an international diplomatic issue between Japan and the US.

[@yowhatupian]

I have worked at Rakuten in Tokyo and really they are a fantastic example of Japanese companies treating software engineers badly. I felt my software development was minimized as much as humanly possible in order to keep my salary as low as possible. They do as much outsourcing as they can and will spend as little as possible on technology infrastructure. I have witnessed first hand huge, costly outages that would be easily avoidable if they just spent a little more on reliability and redudancy. It was really a classic Japanese company that decided to use English in order to more efficiently exploit cheap labor from SE Asia.

[@Markyusaku]

In Tokyo we kinda roll our eyes when recruiters contact us for Rakuten jobs because there are way better places to work

[@barrettish]

I’m not an engineer but work in Tokyo and I haven’t heard anything good about working at Rakuten.

[@cristymarrietuquib9625]

The transition of her hair is so satisfying HAHAHHAH

[@ghtamas7162]

Actually it s so annoyin i stopped watchin it sry...

[@zakkus]

I went to japan for partner training for software in the early 2010's (i was working for an IBM acquired startup in SF), and was actually pretty shocked by how silicon valley-esk that particular company was (anecdotally). They were far more silicon valley-esk than i was lead to believe at the time, like drinks, general pretty/expansive/expensive "office stylings", and not super oppressive "oldschool IBM" dress code that i was told to expect. I actually found the lack of culture shock fairly surprising (i for the life of me cannot remember the partner companies name though). One thing that was exactly what i was warned about was the drinking though. I was drank under the table at business dinner, and i hit the ground _hard_ (and i came in really confident too).

[@flowingpixels]

I have worked as an external software engineer in a Japanese owned factory at my country. And sometimes I had to stay there waiting for the lines to shutdown, I find those bell sounds so triggering, cuz it always reminded me how many hours I had spent being there.

[@Markyusaku]

Engineers in Tokyo have their pick of where they want to work because there is so much demand. I went to an English coding bootcamp there and my American classmates found it fairly easy to get a job after with visas-much harder to do the same in the US. Working conditions are quite good for us especially compared to sales and other departments-almost like a bubble, like a foreign enclave. Even companies that only have Japanese customers have engineering teams that are mostly foreigners, and Japanese is sometimes not a requirement even at a basic level. But overall, it’s not the most flourishing industry and the level is certainly below SV standards as traditional Japanese business practices go against fail fast, agile methodology. But it’s not all bad and actually is a great place to go to learn to become a developer and break into the career. The main issues are working at the bigger, traditional companies with the gross infamous Japanese work style but if you work for a Mercari, or a Mercari wannabe, work life balance is actually very good... My work experience at a Japanese company was actually better than at Apple, even (7.5 hour work days). But the salaries are generally way better at the Gaishi (foreign companies).でも本当に日本のIT業界、ちょっと心配ですよね。

[@Pilgrim182]

Fascinating video for a man who's about to get into Japan's tech industry being a foreigner. I kind of knew Japan's delay on tech, but it seems is more serious than I thought. Your analysis about the causes of the problem were really interesting. Thanks for the lecture! *That Japanese school bell sound was the best edit ever. Only people that have studied in Japan will be able to feel the magic lol.

[@barrettish]

It’s quite true. Not just regarding the production of tech and software, but because of that, usage is delayed. One of the reasons why many companies here couldn’t shift to remote work smoothly/quickly is because they didn’t use tech to begin with and management (usually older men) didn’t know how or preferred face to face. Also, the difficulty to work with other companies who are also analog. People had to go in to the office just to hanko stamp approval papers.

[@hellomayuko]

Glad you liked the bell edit 😆 Of course! Interested to hear what your experiences will be!

[@clifflin7149]

Frankly speaking, sometimes I'm a bit confused: on one side we often see wonderful 'Japanese design' like MUJI, on the other hand we see poor software/website UI (e.g. Sony's mobile phone). Those designer don't seems to be from the same country...

[@froobly]

A lot of the "poor UX" you see on Japanese websites/apps can be attributed to cultural differences, though. In studies, people in Japan have generally shown a preference for higher information density in things like newspapers, magazines and websites. A SquareSpace-style modern web layout might feel barren to someone used to having more info on the first page. That doesn't explain websites that just don't work, but it does explain why the ones that *do* work look the way they do.

[@clifflin7149]

@@froobly Interesting, Thanks

[@techcommentlooker3951]

newer sony phones are pretty much stock android so thats pretty moot nowadays but yeah muji is all about nice minimalistic design.

[@miketyson8933]

Satoshi Nakamoto developed Blockchain the best technology EVER! BITCOIN! The technology is so great its uses have been hidden because it will make governments actually be fair and not corrupt, fair stock markets, fair elections! Clueless!!! Watch who makes the powerful lasers and FUSION ENERGY!!!!

[@rauljosegarcia]

adapt or get left behind. this concept applies to every living organism.

[@hammerfist8763]

Japan's cultural and societal norms help them excel in certain types of technology and engineering. Their QC on high end tech components is legendary. The best Taiwanese motherboards and power supplies proudly advertise, "made with 100% highest quality Japanese capacitors." We could certainly use their diligence and work ethic over here. They could use more of our entreprenurial and innovative spirit over there. Let's go!

[@fernandoalvarez9613]

It also has to do with a loss of personality driven firms leading in technology. Sony was the big innovator when Masaru Ibuka was alive and leading the company. Steve Jobs idolized him and his was of doing business to the point that apple’s proprietary ecosystem is a working version of every strong Sony has made to package “walled garden” product families. Steve Jobs even order Mac OS be placed on an Sony Viao and offered Sony to license Mac to them because he loved the design of the Viao laptop. The switch to Intel from IBM in 2006 can also be attributed to Apple mimicking Sony’s aesthetic.

[@miketyson8933]

Satoshi Nakamoto developed Blockchain the best technology EVER! BITCOIN! The technology is so great its uses have been hidden because it will make governments actually be fair and not corrupt, fair stock markets, fair elections! Clueless!!! Watch who makes the powerful lasers and FUSION ENERGY!!!!

[@keithandrelashley]

Hi, Mayuko I live in South Korea. From what I understand a lot of the similar attitude has been here however it's changing. More schools are pushing for IT and computer programming.

[@itwipsy17]

And Government are funding people to learn IT tech for free and to get hired and founding Startup companies.

[@gallasebiyo4427]

Which is why Naver and Kakao are now Korea's 3rd and 4th most valuable companies (ahead of Hyundai/Kia, LG)

[@EJ-jh1vf]

Japan seems slow to change, but it seems to be more culturally and economically stable.

[@nathanmerritt1581]

Economically stable? quite the opposite! Ever heard of the Lost generation of the 90s?

[@alaina1426]

I really enjoyed learning about this and hearing all of the research you have done. It was very interesting and informative. Great video!

[@yeehitomo]

Thanks for sharing this very accessible look into Japan's tech industry situation! This has been a pretty hot topic for a number of years in academia and industry :) As you mentioned, tackling the second-class status of software compared to hardware and increasing workplace diversity are some of the key hurdles that Japan's business community will have to overcome.

[@amizan8653]

I think that hardware is still 1st class. but for different reasons. Software runs like trash on bad hardware, but can run amazing on good hardware. And look how amazing ARM and RISC-V are compared to x86_64. And it's honestly amazing how a processor can actually take the binary that our code was assembled into and execute it. And then what we can do with our software will expand over time as our hardware gets better and better. I'm looking forward to if we can figure out how to get quantum computers created & mass produced.

[@SianaGearz]

What you're talking about isn't so much hardware as in end product, which i think is what the video implies it's about, but components. Key components is what makes or breaks the hardware. But where are components out of Japan? Hitachi used to be one of the biggest semiconductor companies, they made a huge variety and volume of processors, you would find a Hitachi 68k (licensed), H8(their own) or SH(also their own) in just about every product. Hitachi Semiconductors is now Renesas. What do they make? Mostly junk. The SH5 and SH2A came out almost 20 years ago, and now what? Is there SH-6? Nope. The SH or SuperH was such a massive breakthrough, it's a 32-bit processor but it needs as little memory bandwidth as a 16-bit one for most tasks, it has 16-bit uniform instructions, and its pipelining and (in models where available) superscalarity matrices are pretty great. Well back in the 90s, a small, and back then largely unimportant British company Acorn RISC Machines licensed their patents, and made the similar Thumb instruction set. ARM7TDMI with Thumb quickly found its way into just about everything including the new 32-bit Nintendo Gameboy Advance, since it could hit an insanely low pricepoint and deliver quite a performance for embedded tasks. Currently, classic 32-bit ARM instruction set is deprecated, Thumb2 is the foundation for all new ARM processors, including 64-bit ones. And they're now the predominant force. Japan lost what it had and is sleeping on every new trend, they're so firmly behind. NEC and Sharp were up there too in semiconductor business, not much left of those either. Toshiba is still holding on, with flash business and power and linear semiconductors, but that's about it.

[@japanstation1]

@@SianaGearz Very insightful, and interesting. Thank you!

[@Globeguy1]

It's so easy to scale out with right software. Hardware shouldn't be a limiting factor in 2021 unless your work requires specialized hardware.

[@はると-z8q]

My previous location, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology is truly and definitely the only university that is diverse inside Japan with the majority of the students and researchers from overseas, and more than half of them being female. I had really enjoyed my time there, where the environment is so refreshing and inspiring. Until when I moved to my current, ordinary company in Japan. I was shocked to find the difference so drastic. I believe it depends on which field you are in, but my current organization has so little diversity and leads a rigid working style. Though people are very kind, the environment is dull. We really need a more free structure and lively environment to promote ideas and innovations, or just to make life more fun. I feel like doing something to change it, but is out of my reach. Thanks for your video for speaking out the issue.

[@egorsheverev8086]

I think this works for many top universities. I had my one year exchange program at Tsukuba University and the diversity there is incomparable to most of places in Japan. Around 2000 foreign students come every year, halal restaurants and praying rooms are available, and what is most important you can see the close interaction between Japanese and foreigners. I believe places like Tsukuba university might bring a shift in social structure in Japan with new open-minded and diverse generation of Japanese people.

[@Rusu421]

You should try to work in Rakuten. What is your current organization?

[@missplainjane3905]

@@egorsheverev8086 You don't want Japan to stay as Japan ?

[@egorsheverev8086]

@@Rusu421 Really would like to work there! Currently I am MEXT scholarship nominee

[@egorsheverev8086]

@@missplainjane3905 Of course not. Japan has good and bad sides, so why Japan shouldn’t improve and make progress.

[@norihiro01]

Great topic. it's something that really concerns me as well, as a Japanese linguist and programmer that's working on a gafa project now and worked at Yahoo Japan in early 2000s. One thing is, Japan fell behind on the ability to adapt and innovate, in the face of multiple disrupting technologies. There's no simple solution, but innovation obviously doesn't happen in a vacuum. It requires an ecosystem with the conditions for the seeds to take root, grow and flourish. I think about what makes Japanese farmers grow good rice, fruit, vegetables, beef, etc. All the things that make up the "ecosystem" they grow in, matters, and you just can't create them overnight. When it comes to IT, Japan didn't have the ecosystem to compete globally. A large component of tech today is software engineering which means using programming languages. Other than the logic aspect, programming languages are based on English syntax and sementics. So English native speakers have a natural advantage when it comes to understand programming. An English native highschool grad with some motivation and math, can learn to be a competent programmer. but for a Japanese native it would take an above-average college grad to do the same thing - very roughly speaking. This isn't about who is more or less "intelligent". It's about the Japanese language itself and the education system, which provides almost no advantages for learning programming. In fact I consider them to be an outright hinderances. to be cont?

[@andee9gaming]

You might have a point, but can't you make a similar argument towards European countries? For example countries that use the Cyrillic alphabet. Or countries like Germany that has been historically unskilled in English. Sure, they are all closer to English than Japanese is, but it's not like Japanese people has proven itself inept at programming or learning programming languages. Ruby for example, was made by a Japanese programmer and got quite popular in Japan and in the states, and is even more English-like than Python. As seen by their (still) strong games industry, I don't think it plays that much of a difference. I think that interests and culture is more in the way than anything else (for the individual). Why go for a low tier blue collar job when you can become a respected salary man? Well, interest would make you do that, but family pressure to make a stable living in a respected position might outweigh that. And ofc all of the structural and cultural things within domestic companies as mentioned in the video. From your angle, maybe looking up documentation and examples on sites like stackoverflow and mozilla is a challenge, as they are mostly in English? Maybe you have some insight on that particular issue?

[@Rusu421]

@@andee9gaming as for the countries with the Cyrillic alphabet, then most of the people there also do not know programming. On the other hand, the school focus on mathematics education gives engineers an edge in algorithms and computations, where English is not important.

[@jantran5349]

Learning Japanese kanji is like learning the syllabys database, too many outdated kanjis and they need to modernise the language. Katakana and hiragana was a good start, until it get a lot of cluster with no space and kanjis.

[@burburchacha]

Loving this topic! Please do more content like this! I want to know more about the tech scene, especially in Asia

[@hellomayuko]

Thanks for watching!

[@miketyson8933]

Satoshi Nakamoto developed Blockchain the best technology EVER! BITCOIN! The technology is so great its uses have been hidden because it will make governments actually be fair and not corrupt, fair stock markets, fair elections! Clueless!!! Watch who makes the powerful lasers and FUSION ENERGY!!!!

[@burburchacha]

@@miketyson8933 LOL how do you know if Satoshi Nakamoto is actually Japanese

[@paulrobertsjapan]

Great video, Mayuko. Explaining the attitude to software in Japan definitely helps to understand how Japan ended up where it is today. In terms of catalysts to change, I'd suggest looking back further than Mercari and considering Rakuten and their decision to switch their working language to English from 2010. This resulted in Rakuten opening up to overseas IT talent and hiring thousands of engineers from outside Japan over the past 11 years. While it's often argued that Rakuten failed to innovate enough in terms of culture and salary since then, many companies here have hired former Rakuten tech people, and that diffusion has benefited Japan's s/w-based ecosystem. It also paved the way for companies such as Mercari to work in English or mixed Japanese/English environments. Japan has an immense pool of talented and innovative people. Time for a new Meiji restoration. Looking forward to your next video.