There are some interesting ideas in here, but I feel like the author left out a lot of the story and many other possibilities. 1. The author basically says tha

There are some interesting ideas in here, but I feel like the author left out a lot of the story and many other possibilities. 1. The author basically says that, due to fonts, Japan focused more on “applications” computing rather than system computing up through the 80s. I mostly agree with this. 2. The author then completely leaves out the 90s and jumps to the 2001 release of the iPod. Excuse me? 3. In the late 80s and early 90s, the computing tech became robust enough to handle Japanese fonts somewhere between well enough to almost perfectly. For example, I fondly remember my Wordtank from the early 90s made by Canon that helped my Japanese studying tremendously. Note that some models had variable memory (e.g., marking something for review) and expansion slots. My Apple PowerBook from the early 90s handled Japanese almost perfectly. Japanese word processors (ワープロ) also seemed to have some basic system level functionality (I rarely used one, but many friends did). 4. The above suggests that systems were available and functional in the early 90s. While some open systems like the Mac OS were not made in Japan, open systems existed, so why didn’t they become more widely used in Japan? To me, that is the key question. I think at least one other possible explanation is that Japan’s societal structure didn’t (at least at that time) really leave very much space for people to be able to make a living via these open systems [1], as such, these systems were not broadly in demand. Another possible explanation is that the first “lost decade” (the 90s) saw very little space for innovation. I’m sure other viable explanation are possible. Side note — this is incorrect: “For comparison, let’s look at a few common Japanese characters (these are ranked as the 35th, 64th, and 104th most commonly used characters, respectively): 議 選 調” I wonder where they got this info from. Maybe they were thinking of the list of kanji that students start learning in secondary school? [1] Note that some people actually did make a living these open systems, but they tended to be connected much more intellectually, professionally, and economically with folks outside of Japan. TWICS internet was publicly available in 1993, and that helped tremendously imho.