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>Will we pretend that the usage of floppy disks is normal in almost 2022? This is Japan, no pretending needed. They're waaaay backwards, internet there tends t

>Will we pretend that the usage of floppy disks is normal in almost 2022? This is Japan, no pretending needed. They're waaaay backwards, internet there tends to be 20 years behind the times for starters ... Thought this was common knowledge.

0xCMP 5y ago
When I visited I described this as "one foot in the future and one foot firmly in the past" Some things are futuristic and obvious improvements (e.g. Suica and ApplePay NFC support in 2016/2017) and others are stubbornly in the past (e.g. cash only, physical media, place and structure of society).
LeoPanthera 5y ago
Japan isn't backwards. It's more accurate to describe them as "sideways". They just don't follow the same tech track as everyone else.
- incompleteCode 5y ago
  Do you have any citations for this? I'd love to explore in depth what the lateral tech track looks like.
  - LeoPanthera 5y ago
    My husband is Japanese so all my information is second-hand, but if you want to learn about Japan in a non-anime-manga-etc based way, I can recommend the TV channel "NHK World", which is in English, and also English-language Japanese news sources like the Japan Times.
    - incompleteCode 5y ago
      Thank you!
  - mcguire 5y ago
    They have flying cars. See the documentary Red Sun (1993) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Sun_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Sun_(film)). :-)
- silverpepsi 5y ago
  Your comment would imply they both lack certain innovations we have but also have equally big ones they're ahead of us on. I don't really find that to be the case. I think it is awesome you can board a bus with a 10,000 yen note and the machine can give you change no problem. Also, ATM machines take your coins for deposit and all. But that has been around twenty plus years, and I can't think of anything else substantial I'm jealous of.
reaperducer 5y ago
This is Japan, no pretending needed. They're waaaay backwards, internet there tends to be 20 years behind the times for starters ... Thought this was common knowledge. The Japan you and I know from personal experience isn't anything at all like the imagined futuristic cyberpunk image that the chattering internet has created.
jeeeb 5y ago
Not sure what you mean by the “internet” being 20 years behind. Maybe website design? Certainly not connectivity which is generally world class. Japan has a great culture of precision engineering and quality (although software is a bit of a different story). On the other hand decision making is very conservative and change is often blocked by vested interests. Also they invested heavily in a lot of cutting edge infrastructure during the bubble, but now have been slow to replace it. The most likely answer as to why the MPD still use floppy disks is there is no funding for a total system upgrade. The most likely reason there is no funding is a combination of conservative decision making combined with a politically well connected vendor that makes big bucks of supporting the existing infrastructure.

0xCMP 5y ago

When I visited I described this as "one foot in the future and one foot firmly in the past" Some things are futuristic and obvious improvements (e.g. Suica and ApplePay NFC support in 2016/2017) and others are stubbornly in the past (e.g. cash only, physical media, place and structure of society).

LeoPanthera 5y ago

Japan isn't backwards. It's more accurate to describe them as "sideways". They just don't follow the same tech track as everyone else.

incompleteCode 5y ago
Do you have any citations for this? I'd love to explore in depth what the lateral tech track looks like.
- LeoPanthera 5y ago
  My husband is Japanese so all my information is second-hand, but if you want to learn about Japan in a non-anime-manga-etc based way, I can recommend the TV channel "NHK World", which is in English, and also English-language Japanese news sources like the Japan Times.
  - incompleteCode 5y ago
    Thank you!
- mcguire 5y ago
  They have flying cars. See the documentary Red Sun (1993) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Sun_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Sun_(film)). :-)
silverpepsi 5y ago
Your comment would imply they both lack certain innovations we have but also have equally big ones they're ahead of us on. I don't really find that to be the case. I think it is awesome you can board a bus with a 10,000 yen note and the machine can give you change no problem. Also, ATM machines take your coins for deposit and all. But that has been around twenty plus years, and I can't think of anything else substantial I'm jealous of.

reaperducer 5y ago

This is Japan, no pretending needed. They're waaaay backwards, internet there tends to be 20 years behind the times for starters ... Thought this was common knowledge. The Japan you and I know from personal experience isn't anything at all like the imagined futuristic cyberpunk image that the chattering internet has created.

jeeeb 5y ago

Not sure what you mean by the “internet” being 20 years behind. Maybe website design? Certainly not connectivity which is generally world class. Japan has a great culture of precision engineering and quality (although software is a bit of a different story). On the other hand decision making is very conservative and change is often blocked by vested interests. Also they invested heavily in a lot of cutting edge infrastructure during the bubble, but now have been slow to replace it. The most likely answer as to why the MPD still use floppy disks is there is no funding for a total system upgrade. The most likely reason there is no funding is a combination of conservative decision making combined with a politically well connected vendor that makes big bucks of supporting the existing infrastructure.