An Innovator Leaving Japan
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An Innovator Leaving Japan
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Re: An Innovator Leaving Japan
#2The pdf link doesnt work for me, anyone else have a copy?
Re: An Innovator Leaving Japan
#3The pdf link doesnt work for me, anyone else have a copy?
Maybe there was an edit before but I had no problem downloading the linked pdf. [1]
Pretty interesting read, I have no real knowledge of Japan and I have to say I would've fallen into the category of people that assumed everything was miles ahead in Japan.
I've noticed a few people from HN living in Japan, I'd love to hear what their thoughts are on this.
[1] http://synaptify.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/An-Innovator...
Re: An Innovator Leaving Japan
#4The pdf link doesnt work for me, anyone else have a copy?
Maybe there was an edit before but I had no problem downloading the linked pdf. [1] Pretty interesting read, I have no real knowledge of Japan and I have to say I would've fallen into the category of people that assumed everything was miles ahead in Japan. I've noticed a few people from HN living in Japan, I'd love to hear what their thoughts are on this. [1] http://synaptify.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/An-Innovat…
The dropbox link eventually worked, it showed me an error message the first few times I clicked on it. I would love to hear more about it too. I wish the author had included more of their personal context in terms of why and how they decided to leave.
Re: An Innovator Leaving Japan
#5The pdf link doesnt work for me, anyone else have a copy?
Maybe there was an edit before but I had no problem downloading the linked pdf. [1] Pretty interesting read, I have no real knowledge of Japan and I have to say I would've fallen into the category of people that assumed everything was miles ahead in Japan. I've noticed a few people from HN living in Japan, I'd love to hear what their thoughts are on this. [1] http://synaptify.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/An-Innovat…
I'm in Tokyo, and I have lived here for 12 years. The paper is quite interesting, and I have no major disagreement, but of course it is not the full picture. As I see it, the main problem Japan has is that the education and work culture is good at iterative learning and refinement, but bad at picking up and acting upon ideas that are far from how things are currently done. This is a consensus society, and things have to be broadly agreed upon in the group/company to have a chance. If there is a risk of disagreement the idea will either be buried in endless meetings, or simply dropped without discussion. This makes decision making slow and unimaginative.
Software is a good example. Most software and home pages in Japan look like they have been designed by committee, where every person in the room has a pet feature that has to be on the front page. This leads to software that is cluttered and hard to use. There is also little innovation; most new software seems based on designs already in use.
However, there is one aspect where Japan shines. People care about visuals, and graphics and icons are often pleasing. This at least is an advantage in game software, where Japan is not lagging as badly as in business software.
Re: An Innovator Leaving Japan
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe there was an edit before but I had no problem downloading the linked pdf. [1] Pretty interesting read, I have no real knowledge of Japan and I have to say I would've fallen into the category of people that assumed everything was miles ahead in Japan. I've noticed a few people from HN living in Japan, I'd love to hear what their thoughts are on this. [1] http://synaptify.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/An-Innovat…
The dropbox link eventually worked, it showed me an error message the first few times I clicked on it. I would love to hear more about it too. I wish the author had included more of their personal context in terms of why and how they decided to leave.
I'm still unable to download the PDF, can you post the link to the dropbox copy? Thanks!
Re: An Innovator Leaving Japan
#7google's pdf viewer: http://docs.google.com/gview?url=http://synaptify.com/wp-con...
Re: An Innovator Leaving Japan
#8I think the author does a good job of picking out what has caused Japan to fall behind - not moving away from manufacturing, but didn't pick out the why so much. Yes the DJP is stupidly risk averse despite coming into office on the message of change, yes Japan has been slow to take advantage of the value of their culture, but there are deeper reasons.
One that sticks out to me is the use of IT and software in daily life. When I was a student here in Japan back in 2004, I had to enrol by filling out a form using pen to paper. My Australian university was already doing everything online without a hitch. If I want to organise a monthly cash transfer to pay for a gym membership, I have to fill out a paper form and stamp it to allow for the gym to take money out of my account. Again, back in Australia I can set up a monthly payment using Internet banking, or just get them to charge my credit card. In other words, in the field of applying IT to everyday life, I believe Japan is lagging other countries badly - and I feel that the main reason for this is that PCs did not spread as widely here as they did in Australia. I would guess that most people here primarily access the Internet using their mobile phone.
Re: An Innovator Leaving Japan
#9The pdf link doesnt work for me, anyone else have a copy?
Maybe there was an edit before but I had no problem downloading the linked pdf. [1] Pretty interesting read, I have no real knowledge of Japan and I have to say I would've fallen into the category of people that assumed everything was miles ahead in Japan. I've noticed a few people from HN living in Japan, I'd love to hear what their thoughts are on this. [1] http://synaptify.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/An-Innovat…
I would recommend Alex Kerr's 'Dogs and Demons' book about Japan. It is kind of old (2001) but it is still a great read about what have been some of the specific problems from Japan these past decades.
Re: An Innovator Leaving Japan
#10I live in japan now since a couple of years and can agree with the article to some extent but get the impression that this is not the full picture and there is a lot missing.
Recently, I also attended a presentation from a "The Economist Intelligence Unit [2]" which painted a similar picture. In a nutshell, japan has now a strong position but will decline economically if the current government doesn't take serious steps to reduce and avoid, e.g. bureaucracy overhead.
Some interesting points from my notes:
- The case of Apple vs. Sony is for instance only a software issue not hardware. Sony doesn't encourage collaboration.
- Apple iPod production is a very interesting case anyway in respect that it is partly made in japan [1]
- Growth in regional differences (e.g. fukoaka prefecture has invested heavily in education and infrastructure. Has now strong ties with Busan area in Korea.) will be strong drivers for future markets.
- Too many "big basket" companies in japan
- Very competitive market (e.g. accepted ROI in japan is 4-5% while internationally it is more like 10-15%)
- Privatisation in japan started in 2005 (!). It takes very long to get products into the market
- Successful companies managed to roll their own efficient distribution chain (e.g. Uniqlo, Ikea, 7eleven)
- It takes at least twice as long to get the ROI than anywhere else. International companies are too short sighted
- Japanese consumers are very demanding and less forgiving. To get it right here is very difficult.
Startup wise there is also a growing environment, especially in seed funding for new ideas University wise. I attended another presentation from UTEC [3] where the growth rates they had were very impressive.
Current outlook for japan is not good, but that is mostly because they are too immobile and have too much bureaucracy. We are going back to 1840 standards where the global economy is dominated by China and India anyway.
Reference:
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/business/worldbusiness/28s...
EDIT: Formatting