3 ms·

A short explanation is that they set it up once after WW2 by copying from the US and Europe, but since then the countries they copied from got wise to the IP th

A short explanation is that they set it up once after WW2 by copying from the US and Europe, but since then the countries they copied from got wise to the IP theft and copycat manufacturing and blocked the transfer of later tech and processes. So Japan is forced to keep up the old thing because it's the only way the know how to run. They couldn't modernise from within. The Japanese economy has many traits of a cargo cult. Their culture around office work, the suits, the drinking, the smoking, the "entertaining your clients with prostitutes", the over hours doing "dara-dara" (grunting and head-scratching in front of an open Excel sheet) just for show, etc. is all straight from the Mad Men era as well.

lozenge 5y ago
US working culture is a cargo cult. Cover letters, anodyne non-descriptions of "challenges", "going offline" and "touching base", cookie-cutter Scrum methodologies... hence why we just call it "culture".
coldtea 5y ago
>A short explanation is that they set it up once after WW2 by copying from the US and Europe, but since then the countries they copied from got wise to the IP theft and copycat manufacturing and blocked the transfer of later tech and processes. So Japan is forced to keep up the old thing because it's the only way the know how to run. LOL, that's not even wrong.
omniscient_oce 5y ago
They also have a lot of insanely passionate and smart people, a few of which I know, but the culture can really stifle them at times which is a shame.
- suction 5y ago
  Of course! Especially in the "knowledge worker" departments, but the majority of white-collar employees and their families still kind of believes the "Japan #1" pipe dream. Japanese products are automatically "the best™", quality is highest in the world, and anyone who argues differently is a "Japan basher". It's a strange mixture of arrogance with an inferiority complex, but it still works as sort of a mantra which I guess Japanese office workers are holding on to, in order to be able to keep on churning despite evidence that it's not working.
fomine3 5y ago
Agree for some department, but don't agree for car industry in Japan.

lozenge 5y ago

US working culture is a cargo cult. Cover letters, anodyne non-descriptions of "challenges", "going offline" and "touching base", cookie-cutter Scrum methodologies... hence why we just call it "culture".

coldtea 5y ago

>A short explanation is that they set it up once after WW2 by copying from the US and Europe, but since then the countries they copied from got wise to the IP theft and copycat manufacturing and blocked the transfer of later tech and processes. So Japan is forced to keep up the old thing because it's the only way the know how to run. LOL, that's not even wrong.

omniscient_oce 5y ago

They also have a lot of insanely passionate and smart people, a few of which I know, but the culture can really stifle them at times which is a shame.

suction 5y ago
Of course! Especially in the "knowledge worker" departments, but the majority of white-collar employees and their families still kind of believes the "Japan #1" pipe dream. Japanese products are automatically "the best™", quality is highest in the world, and anyone who argues differently is a "Japan basher". It's a strange mixture of arrogance with an inferiority complex, but it still works as sort of a mantra which I guess Japanese office workers are holding on to, in order to be able to keep on churning despite evidence that it's not working.

fomine3 5y ago

Agree for some department, but don't agree for car industry in Japan.