Aging Japan Wants Automation, Not Immigration
bloomberg.com
Aging Japan Wants Automation, Not Immigration
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Re: Aging Japan Wants Automation, Not Immigration
#2I think this is a brilliant solution for them because of the way their country is setup. (Strong culture with extremely homogeneous population and low birth rate) I really do think a lot of what makes japan special would go away with too much immigration. That being said, America is the opposite and automation would hurt us and so would restricting immigration.
Re: Aging Japan Wants Automation, Not Immigration
#3An idea: Some blue-collar workers displaced by factory automation could be retrained to maintain and repair robots used in healthcare and home assistance.
As developed nations age, there will be increasing needs for healthcare workers including those for home assistance. Since the supply of people wanting the jobs might be limited and many blue-collar workers tend to balk at taking pink-collar jobs, robots could be the intermediary that satisfies both the supply for services and demand for jobs.
Re: Aging Japan Wants Automation, Not Immigration
#4Makes a lot of sense. Why risk their cultural homogeneity - something clearly valued by the majority of Japan - if there are technological solutions to increasing productivity?
Edit - why the downvotes?
Re: Aging Japan Wants Automation, Not Immigration
#5I think this is a brilliant solution for them because of the way their country is setup. (Strong culture with extremely homogeneous population and low birth rate) I really do think a lot of what makes japan special would go away with too much immigration. That being said, America is the opposite and automation would hurt us and so would restricting immigration.
Why would automation hurt us?
Re: Aging Japan Wants Automation, Not Immigration
#6Automation is no cure for Japan. Their influence is waning rapidly, in many sectors. I would say that, with an aging population, Japan is turning into a stale country, culture wise and economy wise alike.
Re: Aging Japan Wants Automation, Not Immigration
#7Automation is no cure for Japan. Their influence is waning rapidly, in many sectors. I would say that, with an aging population, Japan is turning into a stale country, culture wise and economy wise alike.
That's probably true in many dimensions, but maybe Japanese society values stability and conformity higher than innovation or global influence?
Your implicit value judgment very much reflects a Western, linear, 'progress' based view of history, one which not all cultures share.
Re: Aging Japan Wants Automation, Not Immigration
#8Hasn't this been the case since the 1980's?
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/manufacturing-innovation-...
Re: Aging Japan Wants Automation, Not Immigration
#9Automation is no cure for Japan. Their influence is waning rapidly, in many sectors. I would say that, with an aging population, Japan is turning into a stale country, culture wise and economy wise alike.
It seems Japan is entering a new Edo period, inward-looking and isolated.
Re: Aging Japan Wants Automation, Not Immigration
#10Automation has changed from when Japan was on top. The focus is now on software and open collaboration in a globalized society, not hardware built by factory workers with proprietary standards (looking at you, FeliCa)
China may surpass Japan in the automation/AI sphere. Lots of young, English-speaking, western-educated workers, plus the PRC has already innovated so much in manufacturing, shipbuilding, etc., and an ecosystem willing to splash cash on daring startups (albeit a lot of that is state funding, and you need CCP connections to come up in the Chinese startup world) in ways that leave Japan in the dust. Look at how Nvidia is working in China, look at the rise of Aliyun, Baidu Cloud and Tencent Cloud.
The only Japanese companies I know that are geared for automation for the new economy are companies like Mujin, LeapMind and Preferred Networks.
As a side note, the fact that Japan has managed zero-growth despite a rapidly shrinking, aging population; almost zero immigration; and roughly the same economic policy as from the 1980, is nothing short of a Herculean endeavor. I wonder what Japan is going to do when the population decline really gets in gear around 2040.