The United States of Japan • Hacker News Board

Re: The United States of Japan

#111

Post by qbert » Sun, May 06, 2018, 2:46 AM UTC

mistermann wrote: post #86

jpatokal wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People leaving the workforce to pursue homemaking and childrearing shouldn't be a societal problem if it's done voluntarily. That's a pretty big if, especially given that Japanese regularly comes at the bottom of the table for equality in the workplace. While slowly crumbling in the face of decades of economic decline, the societal expectation is still that pregnant women quit their jobs and stay home with the kids…

Anything I've read suggest japanese women generally prefer leaving the workforce to stay home and raise kids.

Those who don't are still automatically expected to however and stigmatized or discriminated against if they don't conform. When I lived in Japan and taught English conversation at a large company, one of my older male students, whom I became friends with, told me that one of my female students secretly was a single mother. He told me not to tell anyone else. Female employees at this company were basically expected to quit if they married or especially if they had children.

A female student of mine at another large company originally planned to quit soon after she married because she imagined working together side by side with her husband at his family's business. After moving in with her husband's family, however, she found out they expected her to stay home and cook and clean all day (while at the same time her husband's adult sisters went out and enjoyed themselves and did no housework). She then regretted giving her notice to quit at her original job and wished she could keep working there.

Smaller companies I later worked at least had married female employees although I never heard of any of them also having children.

Re: The United States of Japan

#112

Post by tokyodude » Sun, May 06, 2018, 2:59 AM UTC

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #41

Larrikin wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you view games that aren't ultra violent as childish? Nintendo fills a popular space and no one has been able to get anywhere close to their success in their area.

As much as I hate Disney these days, I've always wondered why they've had extremely limited success stepping into Nintendo's domain -- and why they haven't tried to partner / aquire.

Disney had TsumTsum in Japan. It was a HUGE hit here up there with Candy Crush Saga level of popularity.

Re: The United States of Japan

#113

Post by roenxi » Sun, May 06, 2018, 3:06 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #80

cinquemb wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this article is just really trying string together anecdotes to fit a narrative that kind of glamorizes the incentives most people are facing now in the economy. I find the analysis here much better[0]: wrt Japan: "For all its tortured economic history since 1989, Japan has never really had an unemployment problem. Going by its unemployment rate alone, conditions don’t ever appear to be all that out of line.…

> And yet, no wage acceleration can be found anywhere. As detailed yesterday, we find more often than not the opposite indication in some of the more comprehensive data. And > There is actually very little employment growth. Those are both false. The US has added a million manufacturing jobs since 2011 and the 250,000 added over the last year or so is the most since 1998. The US bled manufacturing jobs non-stop from…

But the article about "factories buckling from a demand surge" also mentions "hiring slowed". The wage inflation chart trended down over the entire period you link, as did labour force participation chart.

The only positive for employment growth in your sources is a government crackdown enforcing sane work hours in the trucking industry, which seems to have caused the transport industry some trouble. Your links are not at all inconsistent with what the grandparent post is saying.

Re: The United States of Japan

#114

Post by dwaltrip » Sun, May 06, 2018, 3:25 AM UTC

baxtr wrote: post #54

jonathanyc wrote: post #2

A lot more profound than I expected from the title. I recommend reading it if you’ve skipped to the comments :) I was particularly impressed by the comparison the author drew between aspects of Japanese youth culture that developed during the Lost Decade and aspects of “millennial” culture today in the US. I would be interested to see if anyone has developed that further.

I have traveled the world quite a bit, and lately, my impression is: people and cultures are becoming and more similar, probably due to things like social networks that work as amplifier for (mainly western) culture. What I observe: - people dressing/styling similar - same food - same large retail chains - music sounds similar (except for the language) - same TV shows - everybody looking at their smartphones all the…

Cultural diffusion has increased immensely over the past few centuries, especially in the 20th century, as communication and transportation technologies advanced at incredible rates. The barriers that allowed so many different cultures to develop independently have been greatly reduced.

Entropically speaking, strong mixing is expected with the barriers gone. It's very interesting. I wonder how human culture will continue to evolve over the coming century.

Re: The United States of Japan

#115

Post by tokyodude » Sun, May 06, 2018, 3:32 AM UTC

jmadsen wrote: post #92

This isn't really the main point of his article, but he glosses over one very important point about young people & the work ethic today: People who get labelled as "freeters" aren't necessarily bouncing from job to job voluntarily. For decades Japanese corporations were labor-heavy because of life-time employment. When the bubble burst, they broke that unspoken promise and shed themselves of thousands of workers. Whe…

Let me add that low-salary that rises is still low.

My Japanese teacher 20 years ago bragged that Japanese CEOs don't make obscenely more money than their employees. I countered that western CEOs may make more but they also pay their employees far far more and generally don't making their employees work 10am to 11pm 5+ days a week.

I'm my particular field I halved my salary to come to Japan and tripled it going back to the USA. Even funnier I was working for a Japanese company in the USA. I worked for 2 large Japanese companies (one with 4000+ people. The other with 300,000+ people). Both had limits of ~$60k a year set by the HR department no matter how much experience. That's less than interns make at Google USA. A typical engineer out of school makes around $20k a year at a Japanese company.

Here's some data on average yearly salaries by job type in Japan

https://doda.jp/guide/heikin/gyousyu/

Here's a page from Sony's job info showing starting salary at $2.5k a month or $30k a year

https://www.sony.co.jp/SonyInfo/Jobs/careers/info/detail.htm...

Random ad for C programmer for device drivers at Panasonic. $52k a year.

https://persol-hrpartners.co.jp/tech/SB070200/orderSearch?or...

In fact even more evidence, if you go to Indeed.jp (a job listing site) the settings for salary top out at $60k a year.

Add to that age discrimination (expected age is often in the job listing)

Re: The United States of Japan

#116

Post by astura » Sun, May 06, 2018, 4:11 AM UTC

ksec wrote: post #11

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #4

Not at all related to the article, but visiting Tokyo, it was immediately interesting to me just how similar to NYC it was. The feel was very New York, except stores close much earlier on par with the rest of Asia. And no one has ever seems to have heard of a suit that isn’t black. A lot of difference of course, but overall it very much felt like New York to me. As to the article, no doubt that the world is getting s…

>The feel was very New York, except stores close much earlier on par with the rest of Asia. Closer much earlier? What time do NY stores closes at?

There is a damn good reason New York is called "The City That Never Sleeps;" many businesses are open 24/7 and the subway is 24/7 as well. In Manhattan you can take care of most of your personal business at 3am.

Re: The United States of Japan

#117

Post by sngz » Sun, May 06, 2018, 4:19 AM UTC

tlear wrote: post #107

hjorthjort wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sentiment becomes increasingly likely the more hostile the workforce is to you, though.

It is not really hostility to women, but hostility to humans. 10 am -9pm every day often followed by drinking with coworkers.. till last train. vs raising kids. I know what I would choose.

drinking?

Re: The United States of Japan

#118

Post by [deleted] » Sun, May 06, 2018, 4:25 AM UTC

ateesdalejr wrote: post #94

coldtea wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parent doesn't speak specifically of Nintendo (even if they mention several of their titles). The point being made is: if those Japanese games were absent from the market, we'd be left with the more bleak and violent US-made games.

>The point being made is: if those Japanese games were absent from the market, we'd be left with the more bleak and violent US-made games. I think that's partially untrue as there are quite few indie publishers in the US, who don't produce violent games.

[deleted]

Re: The United States of Japan

#119

Post by Daido_M » Sun, May 06, 2018, 4:26 AM UTC

jkcorrea wrote: post #93

> "[...] there is little in the way of the internecine strife rending America’s public discourse at the moment. What keeps Japan from flying apart, in the face of ongoing political, economic, and demographic uncertainty? A standardized national curriculum that insures a shared level of basic educational experience? An egalitarian pay ethic, with far less income disparity than there is in the U.S.? A refreshing lack o…

I think this is one of the most significant reasons why Japan is the way it is, but one of the most ignored. It's difficult, in today's political climate, to accept that maybe immigration and diversity aren't always good things.

I hope Japan stays the way it is for a long time more.

Re: The United States of Japan

#120

Post by aerophilic » Sun, May 06, 2018, 4:50 AM UTC

wafflebear wrote: post #16

aerophilic wrote: post #3

It is an interesting thing to contemplate, how there really are “leading” and “trailing” cultural activities. I noticed this in Australia how culturally, they were about a decade behind the US (this is not a snipe, just an observation on cultural norms). It is interesting to think that the US is culturally behind Japan. It leads me to wonder if that really will be our future as well, will we go through two lost decad…

Can you give some examples of how Australia is culturally 10 years behind the US?

I probably should have been more specific. As with all things, even in the original article, there are both examples of both leading and trailing examples of culture. However, you asked for a specific example. For that, I refer to when I was living in Australia around 2009. What I distinctly remembered, and which still sticks in my mind was male/female interactions and cultural expectations.

In particular, what is “acceptable” in the work place. refer to societal norms as it comes to what is “acceptable” in the work. I recall a situation where a “secretary” was spoken to in such a way that I thought I was in a “Mad Men” episode. She was put down/treated such that if it had been in the US, would have been grounds for a sexual harassment lawsuit.

What was worse, this seemed to be the “norm” and nothing out of the ordinary. I even recalling talking to a female colleague and her intimadating that this was “par for the course”.

Another cultural difference, which I suspect is remedied by now, mostly had to do with availability of technology. Talking with/being around students and young professionals, at least at the time. It was very obvious that they had less exposure to information through the Internet. This wasn’t due to lack of interest, but more lack of infrastructure. It cost 10X to get the same technologies we took for granted in the US. Also, some things simply would not be available at any price. I really hope it has changed since then, but those are my memories.

All that said, Australia remains one of my favorite places in the world. I have often thought of moving back.