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A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

disruptingjapan.com

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Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#261

Post by triceratops »

makeitdouble wrote: post #62

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…

> For instance did the UK become a Software behemoth ? France ? Germany ? Brazil ? India ?

Other than Brazil, all of these countries have dozens of tech unicorn startups, and numerous established success stories. The UK has nearly 50, India has over 100. Germany and France have somewhat fewer. But those countries may have a more cautious VC style, with less American influence.

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#262

Post by skhr0680 »

Retric wrote: post #219
dudeinjapan wrote: post #193

Tim Romero (author of linked podcast) misses the point. Paul Graham has a far better take on this topic: http://www.paulgraham.com/usa.html The problem isn't that Japanese companies "missed" the opportunity to do software at X point in time--the problem is that they are culturally Japanese. Japan is about consensus-based design, there is a high penalty for making mistakes, and individuality/creativity is not valued.…

Yet, Japan had no issue building a wide range of popular console video games but had far less success in PC games. Language seems like a better explanation as US and Japan had quite different UI constraints in their native language.

“I’m getting it for the kids” doesn’t work for a $2,000+ PC that can play the latest games, and that has always kept PC gaming niche in Japan.

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#263

Post by bamboozled »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #246
nottorp wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. The name on the card is rather arbitrary. In the US, that is. Other places put the name on your ID on your card :)

Not necessary, especially if you have 'extended-ASCII' or non-Latin alphabet. And overall, why do check on the card and not on ID?

Are you asking me? Because I'm complaining about the system in-case you didn't notice?

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#264

Post by azangru »

dudeinjapan wrote: post #193

Tim Romero (author of linked podcast) misses the point. Paul Graham has a far better take on this topic: http://www.paulgraham.com/usa.html The problem isn't that Japanese companies "missed" the opportunity to do software at X point in time--the problem is that they are culturally Japanese. Japan is about consensus-based design, there is a high penalty for making mistakes, and individuality/creativity is not valued.…

How is it that Japanese manufacturing practices made such a deep impact on the Agile software development movement in the West (The New New Product Development Game, Kaizen, Kanban, reduce muda, shu-ha-ri, etc. etc.), yet failed to improve work practices at home?

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#265

Post by nequo »

skissane wrote: post #126
IYasha wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Less broadly known than Ruby but the late Itojun[1] and the KAME project[2] also put an inordinate amount of effort into adding IPv6 and IPsec support to the BSDs.

[1] https://www.icann.org/en/blogs/details/rest-in-peace-itojun-...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAME_project

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#267

Post by Karunamon »

azangru wrote: post #264
dudeinjapan wrote: post #193

Tim Romero (author of linked podcast) misses the point. Paul Graham has a far better take on this topic: http://www.paulgraham.com/usa.html The problem isn't that Japanese companies "missed" the opportunity to do software at X point in time--the problem is that they are culturally Japanese. Japan is about consensus-based design, there is a high penalty for making mistakes, and individuality/creativity is not valued.…

How is it that Japanese manufacturing practices made such a deep impact on the Agile software development movement in the West (The New New Product Development Game, Kaizen, Kanban, reduce muda, shu-ha-ri, etc. etc.), yet failed to improve work practices at home?

It sounds like the culture there leads to a lot of innovations being created that the same culture prevents from being implemented.

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#268

Post by SiempreViernes »

ndiddy wrote: post #223
BlueTemplar wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This example is complicated by games also being art and how it can be hard to separate both (even when it's just graphics and audio that you keep on a more closed license). See how Western games are still overwhelmingly closed source, despite the now known rewards : like Civilization 4 (2005) opening most (but not all) of its C++ (dll) source code, as well as easy to mod XML & Python scripts resulting in a still aliv…

Why do you think that having people buy a game once and then keep playing it for 18 years is a reward for the developer?

Because it is nice when your customer are happy with what you've sold them instead of running hate campaigns online?

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#269

Post by red-iron-pine »

HPsquared wrote: post #189
Dalewyn wrote: post #77

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…

In other words, craftsmanship is valued over profitability.

A respectable focus, but not one that survives in a complex and ruthless market

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#270

Post by red-iron-pine »

PsycheOS wrote: post #147
skissane wrote: post #128

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…

Yep. It was to protect Microsoft and ultimately the deep state's surveillance capabilities.

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