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Good article. The most hopeful thing in it is their response to the development of reusable rockets "We feel a strong sense of crisis." Good. They should. It's

by nkoren 8y ago

Good article. The most hopeful thing in it is their response to the development of reusable rockets "We feel a strong sense of crisis." Good. They should. It's an innovation that is changing the industry with extreme rapidity. Almost universally, the established players in the sector -- both domestically and internationally -- have been in a state of extreme denial about this, making increasingly tortured arguments for why reusability isn't worthwhile or even possible to do. The longer they remain in this state, the more they undermine their future. Nice to see that Japan is confronting this head-on (even if there is still a bit of denial evident). The end of the article, talking about women's participation in the workforce, isn't just political correctness. Japan has a big problem here, and it will impair their ability to innovate. This isn't just about having women in senior leadership positions (although that's not unimportant). Watch the SpaceX webcast and you'll see that their crowds of (often very young) engineers are thronging with women, minorities, people who've dialed their queerness up to 11, etc. What's going on here? I don't think that SpaceX's hiring practices involve much affirmative action; from everything I've heard, intelligence, passion, and commitment are the qualities they hire for. But, critically: they give zero points for fitting into the culture of old grey company men. This differentiates SpaceX from the establishment and gives them an abundance of bright young things that are clearly fuel innovation. The culture of old grey company men is something that Japan has bad. They do have some traditions which act to counteract this -- a practically spiritual commitment to quality of service & craftsmanship has driven Japanese innovation for centuries -- but that's not going to be enough to compete.

tlear 8y ago
You realize that webcasts extras are not random sample of SpaceX engineering force? Japan biggest challenge is collapsing population. Honestly Space or NK for that matter are tiny problems for Japan. Debt and birth rate is what they need to face. That is real crisis.
- nkoren 8y ago
  I've known some folks who've worked for SpaceX, and more who'v interviewed. My sense is that the webcasts are fairly representative of the youthfulness and diversity of the company. (Context: I started getting involved in space activism as a teenager in the early 1990s. The first conference I went to was a bunch of mostly-veteran Apollo and Shuttle engineers. I remember looking around the room and noting that I was the youngest person in the room by 2 or 3 decades, and also that there wasn't a single woman or non-white face present. Nothing against these guys at all -- they were great! -- but demographics like that will lead any movement to extinction. So I find it enormously satisfying to see how those demographics have changed.) You're absolutely right that Japan's biggest challenge is its collapsing population. However, excluding half your population from meaningful participation in the workforce -- at the same time as your population is collapsing -- makes a bad problem significantly worse. In fact both problems have pretty much the same solution, starting with changing the culture such that it doesn't force Japanese women to choose between between being a mother and having a career.
  - tlear 8y ago
    Thing it is a choice all women have to make. US or Japan. As you go past late 20s the clock is ticking. You basically need 2-3 years per kid to write off your career(so about 6 years for replacement rate). Unless you are making enough to hire full time help or have your parent works as that full time help for free. Since me and wife neither of the two applied(well we could hire help but we both kinda want kids to grow up raised by a parent instead of a nanny) Japan is at the point where half measures like subsidized daycare are long past. They need to literally pay people to have kids at this point. Give massive tax credits for kids etc. Workforce itself is not that big deal. Japan unlike US is VERY easy to bring qualified people to work. Trivial really none of the US tech visa nonsense. Hire a guy, he is in the office month later. We have people from Netherland, Uruguay, Canada, Belgium etc. Tokyo is now trivial to live in with zero Japanese language ability or to find work as a qualified person. The pay is low by US standards though.

by nkoren 8y ago

tlear 8y ago

You realize that webcasts extras are not random sample of SpaceX engineering force? Japan biggest challenge is collapsing population. Honestly Space or NK for that matter are tiny problems for Japan. Debt and birth rate is what they need to face. That is real crisis.

nkoren 8y ago
I've known some folks who've worked for SpaceX, and more who'v interviewed. My sense is that the webcasts are fairly representative of the youthfulness and diversity of the company. (Context: I started getting involved in space activism as a teenager in the early 1990s. The first conference I went to was a bunch of mostly-veteran Apollo and Shuttle engineers. I remember looking around the room and noting that I was the youngest person in the room by 2 or 3 decades, and also that there wasn't a single woman or non-white face present. Nothing against these guys at all -- they were great! -- but demographics like that will lead any movement to extinction. So I find it enormously satisfying to see how those demographics have changed.) You're absolutely right that Japan's biggest challenge is its collapsing population. However, excluding half your population from meaningful participation in the workforce -- at the same time as your population is collapsing -- makes a bad problem significantly worse. In fact both problems have pretty much the same solution, starting with changing the culture such that it doesn't force Japanese women to choose between between being a mother and having a career.
- tlear 8y ago
  Thing it is a choice all women have to make. US or Japan. As you go past late 20s the clock is ticking. You basically need 2-3 years per kid to write off your career(so about 6 years for replacement rate). Unless you are making enough to hire full time help or have your parent works as that full time help for free. Since me and wife neither of the two applied(well we could hire help but we both kinda want kids to grow up raised by a parent instead of a nanny) Japan is at the point where half measures like subsidized daycare are long past. They need to literally pay people to have kids at this point. Give massive tax credits for kids etc. Workforce itself is not that big deal. Japan unlike US is VERY easy to bring qualified people to work. Trivial really none of the US tech visa nonsense. Hire a guy, he is in the office month later. We have people from Netherland, Uruguay, Canada, Belgium etc. Tokyo is now trivial to live in with zero Japanese language ability or to find work as a qualified person. The pay is low by US standards though.