Speaking as a Japanese-American, I personally think the biggest problem with Japanese programmers comes down to the Japanese being too crafty and elitist. What do I mean by this? Basically: If you're a wizard at peeling the skin off an apple with your knife you never need an apple peeler; consequently, you never get a good peeler industry going. Meanwhile, Americans manufacture the best apple peelers because they can…
> This I feel is why Japanese programmers continue to be utterly inept
Ahh. This explains why Perl is so much better than Ruby. Makes sense now.
> Japanese programmers continue to be utterly inept That's quite a sweeping statement! Plenty of Japanese programers I know are extremely competent.
I feel that based off my experiences using and interacting with Japanese software. Very frequently, they exhibit exotic bugs and quirks that make me sincerely question the aptitude of the programmers involved. Maybe the programmers in question are smart as in book smart, but they clearly don't know how to reflect that in practice. Also, it truly is ridiculous that so many Japanese programs still can't unicode.
> Also, it truly is ridiculous that so many Japanese programs still can't unicode.
Can't, or won't? In truth, Unicode is a completely braindead standard
I disagree with everything in this article post-2000. There were no "software gatekeepers" preventing Japanese software from flourishing on the PC or Mac. I'm not sure what the author is talking about there. So there's still the unexplained question of why Japanese software is still bad, in 2023. And I think the answer is the language barrier. Windows and Mac dominate the world's computer systems, and the development…
> And I think the answer is the language barrier. This may contribute, but it's not the main issue imo. I've worked with tons of Japanese devs and English didn't hold them back much. Plus look at Ruby, which was all the rage in webdev at one point. It was invented in Japan, and it had better documentation in Japanese than English. Bigger issues for Japan's tech industry in 2023: - Lack of VC/Startup investment (0.02%…
> I've worked with tons of Japanese devs and English didn't hold them back much.
Thanks for this. I'm probably going to have to move back to Japan soon, since the wife is from there and can't handle living in the USA Rather than take an 80% pay cut to partake in the salaryman lifestyle, I'm going to have to start some sort of business. This podcast should have some relevant info, haha
Join a Western company's Japanese branch, both pay and working conditions will be much better.
Based on the experience of people I know, the 'easiest' way is to get hired by a company in the US (or wherever you are) that has a significant Japanese branch, work there for a while, and then ask to get transferred. But be aware that even 'better' working conditions can be much worse than you are used to.
Speaking as a Japanese-American, I personally think the biggest problem with Japanese programmers comes down to the Japanese being too crafty and elitist. What do I mean by this? Basically: If you're a wizard at peeling the skin off an apple with your knife you never need an apple peeler; consequently, you never get a good peeler industry going. Meanwhile, Americans manufacture the best apple peelers because they can…
I'd also note the hereditary love for trade/manufacturing secrets which transformed into adoption of extremely proprietary licensing. Developers prior to ~2015 hardly ever considered publishing their code or even format specs. This secrecy has deep roots and it really annoys and pisses me off. I'm not narrowing down on corporate software - even hobbyists who write "dating games" would never publish code even if it's something ridiculously simple. I can hardly remember an example of FOSS from Japan except for CrystalDiskInfo. But I can tell for sure, when you were using japanese software from before 2010s you could FEEL it, the proprietaniness, the secrecy, the know-howness, the one-of-a-kind-ness, handmad(e)ness :)
I still remember trying that "dark internet" sharing program... SO secret and proprietary, so much security by obscurity - it made be laugh, cry and facepalm.
Speaking as a Japanese-American, I personally think the biggest problem with Japanese programmers comes down to the Japanese being too crafty and elitist. What do I mean by this? Basically: If you're a wizard at peeling the skin off an apple with your knife you never need an apple peeler; consequently, you never get a good peeler industry going. Meanwhile, Americans manufacture the best apple peelers because they can…
I'd also note the hereditary love for trade/manufacturing secrets which transformed into adoption of extremely proprietary licensing. Developers prior to ~2015 hardly ever considered publishing their code or even format specs. This secrecy has deep roots and it really annoys and pisses me off. I'm not narrowing down on corporate software - even hobbyists who write "dating games" would never publish code even if it's…
> I can hardly remember an example of FOSS from Japan except for CrystalDiskInfo.
The programming language Ruby has to be the most famous Japanese open source software of them all
Speaking as a Japanese-American, I personally think the biggest problem with Japanese programmers comes down to the Japanese being too crafty and elitist. What do I mean by this? Basically: If you're a wizard at peeling the skin off an apple with your knife you never need an apple peeler; consequently, you never get a good peeler industry going. Meanwhile, Americans manufacture the best apple peelers because they can…
That's my story with the dish washer: I find it is a lot easier just wash dish as soon as it is used, it does not take more than a few seconds for a plate, and my dishwasher are only used as a place to dry plates.
I had thought about the same concept you mentioned here when comparing eastern and western culture, and I thought it might come from diet, but I didn't backup with any research.
Bit of history many people are not aware of - in the 1980s, Japan developed its own indigenous operating system, TRON. Towards the end of that decade, the Japanese government wanted to adopt it as a national standard. The US government started threatening trade sanctions, which gave Japan cold feet. (Some accused Microsoft of being behind it, although others insist that’s untrue.) How would have the Japanese software industry turned out without US threats, or if Japan had ignored them?
Speaking as a Japanese-American, I personally think the biggest problem with Japanese programmers comes down to the Japanese being too crafty and elitist. What do I mean by this? Basically: If you're a wizard at peeling the skin off an apple with your knife you never need an apple peeler; consequently, you never get a good peeler industry going. Meanwhile, Americans manufacture the best apple peelers because they can…
> Japanese programmers continue to be utterly inept That's quite a sweeping statement! Plenty of Japanese programers I know are extremely competent.
That's quite a sweeping statement!
But plenty of Japanese programers you know who are extremely competent != all Japanese programmers are extremely competent.
The key part to me: > But the rest of the word was moving in a different direction. The rest of the world was moving away from dedicated hardware and towards innovative software running on standard hardware platforms. This piece is about Japan vs the world, but looking at countries other than the US I'm not sure this narrative works. For instance did the UK become a Software behemoth ? France ? Germany ? Brazil ? Ind…
Japanese mobile phones kicked the ever lovin' crap out of western phones for a very long time. The Japanese got into social media way before the West did. And Yahoo Japan actually still exists and seems to be doing okay. And that's not to mention the success of Japanese video games. The big problem that Japanese software has is simply that its market is too much smaller than anything which caters to English. This is…
To me the main difference is they failed to push an operating system.
As you say, they were really ahead in mobile, and docomo had an honest try to push imode in europe for instance, but it couldn't take off as the markets were too different.
The iPhone not supporting Felica gave the maker a small bubble to thrive but android was too far behind. Now they are barely surviving.