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"It's also particularly odd to invoke Japan as an example of a culture that doesn't care at all about design or aesthetics." The belief that Japanese people al

"It's also particularly odd to invoke Japan as an example of a culture that doesn't care at all about design or aesthetics." The belief that Japanese people all deeply care about such artistic things is largely a Western romanticization of Japanese culture, the sort that Roy Andrew Miller criticized in Japan's Modern Myth over three decades ago already. Yes, Japan is home to some interesting traditions, but that doesn't mean that broad society cares. And as Japanese websites show, Japanese mass society is quite comfortable with cluttered websites that one would be hard-pressed to call "elegant".

krapp 9y ago
True, but I didn't claim that "Japanese people all deeply care about such artistic things", only that they had a history with a design aesthetic that differed in principle from Western design, but wasn't an example of the absence of design. One could just as correctly assert that most Westerners don't care deeply about design, either. >And as Japanese websites show, Japanese mass society is quite comfortable with cluttered websites that one would be hard-pressed to call "elegant". Do they look cluttered to Japanese people, though? Or do they only look cluttered to Westerners because Japanese text looks like noise rather than language? Admittedly, it doesn't look elegant, but that doesn't mean it isn't an example of design.