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In Japan, the robot isn't coming for your job; it's filling the one nobody wants

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Re: In Japan, the robot isn't coming for your job; it's filling the one nobody wants

#21

Post by ggm »

chaostheory wrote: post #8
maerF0x0 wrote: post #5

"No one wants" usually includes an insufficient wage, sometimes also an issue of insufficient investment in training for skilled folks. eg if you need a doctor in 12 years you have to start more or less today. A quick google suggests ~18% of their working age people do not have jobs, which naturally could be shifted by incentives like money or training. (Edit, because people are confused, I'm not talking about unempl…

1. There is only so much you can pay the people doing the kind of work like cleaning the Shinkansens or manning the 7-11's because it affects customer costs. i.e. There's a point where you increase the salary of 7-11 workers that it causes a $2 fried chicken snack to inflate to $10 that customers will refuse to buy 2. Even if there was magically enough money and time to retrain people, they would still be short of wo…

This is a linkage in theory but in practice it's an indirect linkage and the 7-11 owner does not have a handbook dictating how prices rise or fall relating to labour costs.

As evidenced by the non arrival of across the board 10% rises in meal costs when tipping is banned.

TL;DR cost and price linkage is not amenable to simplistic claims about the impact on pricing.

Re: In Japan, the robot isn't coming for your job; it's filling the one nobody wants

#22

Post by alephnerd »

7373737373 wrote: post #20

If Universal Basic Income was a thing, this would probably happen much faster globally

Japan doesn't have UBI, but it's welfare system is extremely expansive as Article 25 of the Constitution guarantees a minimum standard of living through livelihood, housing, education, and medical assistance.

Additonally, Japan has spent decades thinking about this eventuality (at least since the 1970s), which is why Japan worked on the "Flying Geese" paradigm where Japanese public-private ventures would end up become major capital stake holders across Asia, the US, and Europe.

Re: In Japan, the robot isn't coming for your job; it's filling the one nobody wants

#23

Post by wileydragonfly »

alephnerd wrote: post #17
maerF0x0 wrote: post #5

"No one wants" usually includes an insufficient wage, sometimes also an issue of insufficient investment in training for skilled folks. eg if you need a doctor in 12 years you have to start more or less today. A quick google suggests ~18% of their working age people do not have jobs, which naturally could be shifted by incentives like money or training. (Edit, because people are confused, I'm not talking about unempl…

No one wants to clean s#it, especially in a country with as broad a social welfare net as Japan. Instead, in Japan you can get someone from Vietnam, China, or Thailand to do that for a couple dollars a day with Gulf style guestworker rules. Additionally, Asian societies don't have the same Luddite aversion to automation [0] that seems to have taken over Western mindshare as can be seen on HN. They don't want Westerne…

You’re allowed to type shit. We’re all adults here.

Re: In Japan, the robot isn't coming for your job; it's filling the one nobody wants

#24

Post by alephnerd »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #14
chaostheory wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. There is only so much you can pay the people doing the kind of work like cleaning the Shinkansens or manning the 7-11's because it affects customer costs. i.e. There's a point where you increase the salary of 7-11 workers that it causes a $2 fried chicken snack to inflate to $10 that customers will refuse to buy 2. Even if there was magically enough money and time to retrain people, they would still be short of wo…

Different from the USA, 7-11 in Japan and China are mainly self checkout at least, so they can technically run a store with less people since they don’t have to man cash registers to get people checked out.

This. Also there is a social backlash against Vietnamese, Chinese, and Thai service workers in Japan now (the people who tend to be working the counter at a kombini, but apparently Asians all look the same to Western HNers), as well as Western tourists.

Edit: can't reply

> I doubt many Chinese youths want to work for minimum wage in Japan

Chinese are the 2nd largest nationality of foreign agricultural and food workers in Japan [0].

As long as the median household income in China [1] remains below the minimum wage in Japan [2], members of the bottom half of Chinese society will continue to emigrate there, Korea, and other countries to work, that said not at the same rate as was seen a decade ago.

[0] - https://catalog.lib.kyushu-u.ac.jp/opac_download_md/4738336/...

[1] - https://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202507/t202507...

[2] - https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9C%80%E4%BD%8E%E8%B3%83%E9...

Re: In Japan, the robot isn't coming for your job; it's filling the one nobody wants

#25

Post by TurdF3rguson »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #14
chaostheory wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. There is only so much you can pay the people doing the kind of work like cleaning the Shinkansens or manning the 7-11's because it affects customer costs. i.e. There's a point where you increase the salary of 7-11 workers that it causes a $2 fried chicken snack to inflate to $10 that customers will refuse to buy 2. Even if there was magically enough money and time to retrain people, they would still be short of wo…

Different from the USA, 7-11 in Japan and China are mainly self checkout at least, so they can technically run a store with less people since they don’t have to man cash registers to get people checked out.

But who's going to unlock the expensive items from the plexiglass case?

Re: In Japan, the robot isn't coming for your job; it's filling the one nobody wants

#28

Post by canpan »

I went to a chain Family Restaurant recently here in Japan. The food is brought by a robot for a while now. Recently you get your seat selected at a touchscreen. You can pay at your table's tablet using PayPay. There is still some waiter staff, but it being reduced to the past. The only part that did not change much yet is the kitchen.

I said to myself to stop going, if there is no human staff left. On the other hand, small shops with good atmosphere are thriving.

Re: In Japan, the robot isn't coming for your job; it's filling the one nobody wants

#29

Post by TurdF3rguson »

mamami wrote: post #10

Meanwhile in the US they're replacing artists, writers, and teachers

I agree with the teachers one. Having one lady in charge of educational instruction for that many kids will be looked back upon as barbarism.
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