4 ms·

I don't disagree with much of the story, but there are other factors too. A big one is that due to the complexity of the Japanese writing system, PCs never went

I don't disagree with much of the story, but there are other factors too. A big one is that due to the complexity of the Japanese writing system, PCs never went mainstream: the older generations survived with handwriting, faxes and dedicated word processors, and the newer ones jumped right to mobile phones, meaning the PC hacking generation of the 70s and 80s that kicked off the dot-com boom was much smaller than in the West. Plus you had the usual Galapagos problem of Japanese computers being incompatible with the rest of the world (MSX, PC-98, DOS/V etc). I'm also much less optimistic than the author about the future of the Japanese software industry. Mobile dev in particular is massive across Asia and Japan has no competitive advantage over (say) China, Vietnam, Korea, Indonesia etc here.

spullara 4y ago
There is a good reason though that the most common communication mechanism in China is talking rather than typing.
- iforgotpassword 4y ago
  I'm not so sure. Have you watched them type on computers and phones? It's a bit more complicated because you need an IME, sure, but it doesn't seem to make that much of a difference. I guess it's tempting to draw that conclusion, but I think it's much more related to culture. Even among European countries, and within countries but between age groups, the usage of voice vs text is pretty different.
- mchaver 4y ago
  What is your source or personal experience for that? I don't think the typing system has any correlation. In fact you can actually type pretty fast with modern keyboard software, there are lots of shortcuts. I type in Chinese with friends and family everyday and so do my kids. Hardly anyone uses voice messages. I find leaving voice messages on messaging systems more popular with Spanish speakers than Chinese speakers, and Spanish is one of the easy languages to write for native speakers.
  - BlueTemplar 4y ago
    Yes, but software keyboards still suck compared to hardware ones.
- numpad0 4y ago
  It's a common misconception that Chinese and Japanese spoken languages share roots, it's just the script exported from ancient China. Since IME is more tied to grammar than to script I am not sure how much relevant will that be...
johnwalkr 4y ago
I don't think this is a big barrier, except for the fact that Western computers didn't have good support for Japanese from the beginning. Earlier, heavier adoption of PCs might have changed the course of history, but at the time it would have been difficult to choose a 286 with DOS vs one of the Japanese computers.

spullara 4y ago

There is a good reason though that the most common communication mechanism in China is talking rather than typing.

iforgotpassword 4y ago
I'm not so sure. Have you watched them type on computers and phones? It's a bit more complicated because you need an IME, sure, but it doesn't seem to make that much of a difference. I guess it's tempting to draw that conclusion, but I think it's much more related to culture. Even among European countries, and within countries but between age groups, the usage of voice vs text is pretty different.
mchaver 4y ago
What is your source or personal experience for that? I don't think the typing system has any correlation. In fact you can actually type pretty fast with modern keyboard software, there are lots of shortcuts. I type in Chinese with friends and family everyday and so do my kids. Hardly anyone uses voice messages. I find leaving voice messages on messaging systems more popular with Spanish speakers than Chinese speakers, and Spanish is one of the easy languages to write for native speakers.
- BlueTemplar 4y ago
  Yes, but software keyboards still suck compared to hardware ones.
numpad0 4y ago
It's a common misconception that Chinese and Japanese spoken languages share roots, it's just the script exported from ancient China. Since IME is more tied to grammar than to script I am not sure how much relevant will that be...

johnwalkr 4y ago

I don't think this is a big barrier, except for the fact that Western computers didn't have good support for Japanese from the beginning. Earlier, heavier adoption of PCs might have changed the course of history, but at the time it would have been difficult to choose a 286 with DOS vs one of the Japanese computers.