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>Japan is by far the absolute worst country when it comes to tech now. No, it really isn't at all. It's better than the US in many ways: 1. Eating out. At m

>Japan is by far the absolute worst country when it comes to tech now. No, it really isn't at all. It's better than the US in many ways: 1. Eating out. At many Japanese restaurants, you have a tablet computer at your table, or you get a QR code to order on your phone. You use the tablet/web app (which admittedly doesn't always have the greatest UI, esp when you switch to English) to order your food and maybe pay. It's not just big chains like Jonathan's; you'll even see this sometimes at small non-chain restaurants with 1 or 2 workers. This kind of tech is mostly unheard of in the US; you have to verbally tell your order to some annoyed worker and hope they don't screw it up, and then they expect a gigantic "tip" for simply doing their job. Partially thanks to the much lower staffing needed at Japanese restaurants, it's quite inexpensive to eat out. 2. Toilets: they all have electronic controls to spray your butt after you poop. You can select water pressure, activate seat heating, etc. These washlets as they're called are actually available in the US, but no one buys them except maybe Japanese expats. Even after the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020, Americans steadfastly refuse to improve their hygiene and adopt this technology. 3. Public transit fare cards: in Japan, virtually every public transit system uses "IC cards" based on the Felica NFC chip. It's twice as fast as other NFC technologies, so it gets people through fare gates quicker, which is critical in the crowded Tokyo subways. These stored-value cards can mostly be used nationwide (tip: get a Suica or Pasmo card, they're good almost everywhere). In addition to train fares, you can also use them to pay for vending machines, many restaurants, and lots more. On top of this, the Felica chip is built into Japan-market smartphones, so you can do all this with your phone instead of a card. In the US, the NYC metro system still uses magnetic stripe cards, and while the DC system is more advanced (using stored-value cards that aren't as fast as Japan's), like all other transit systems in the US, the cards are only good on that one transit system in one city, and for nothing else at all. 4. Remote-control air-conditioners. Called "mini-split" in the US, the typical A/C units in Japan are only good for one room, but they come with a remote control and have many functions: cooling, heating, dehumidification, etc. You can control whether the vents are fixed in one direction or oscillate. I'm sure I've missed many other useful functions. Since the A/Cs are room-sized, you don't have to waste energy cooling/heating rooms you're not using at the moment, or you can set them differently. These systems have become increasingly popular in the US, especially for retrofitting older buildings that don't have ducts. 5. Interpersonal messaging. In Japan, everyone uses LINE. It's not perfect, but it has great privacy and lots of features. In the US, most people are still using telephone-number-based SMS from the 1990s. The US is decades behind on basic communications, easily the worst in the world. I don't think I need to go any further here. 6. Bullet trains. Japan leads the world, and will have the world's first serious maglev train between Tokyo and Nagoya in around 5 years. The US doesn't have anything to speak of. 7. Combination washer/dryers. Americans think this is a brand-new thing, but they've been here in Japan for many years now and are very common at the higher-end. 8. Chip manufacturing. The US only has Intel, and TSMC is trying to expand there with government subsidies but it's not going well at all. Japan has Renesas and TSMC is expanding here too, with far better success. Time will tell how this pans out, but given how dysfunctional US society and politics are these days, I wouldn't bet on the US doing well here.

Dalewyn 2y ago
>Eating out. At many Japanese restaurants, you have a tablet computer at your table, or you get a QR code to order on your phone. You use the tablet/web app (which admittedly doesn't always have the greatest UI, esp when you switch to English) to order your food and maybe pay. That experience is horrible, and not just because pecking at a small screen for ants is horrible. Quite often the thing flat out doesn't work and/or is laid out in the most incomprehensible way possible that it's just faster to call a waiter over. Also, owing to this being computer hardware sitting right next to food, the things are almost always grimey. Proper menus at least are ostensibly cleaned between customers. This isn't a problem specific to Japan, though. >Toilets: they all have electronic controls to spray your butt after you poop. You can select water pressure, activate seat heating, etc. Yeah, they have that since at least the 90s or something. Nothing new. I appreciate the engineering that goes into them, but it's a case of Galapagos. >Public transit fare cards: in Japan, virtually every public transit system uses "IC cards" based on the Felica NFC chip. They're great, but the world is starting to move ahead of them with everything moving to smartphone NFC and in a way that is carrier and brand and network agnostic. >Remote-control air-conditioners. They're great, particularly with how quiet they are. If it wasn't obvious from the toilets, Japan is great at hardware engineering. The problem is this doesn't translate to software engineering and high tech in general. >Interpersonal messaging. In Japan, everyone uses LINE. LINE is a perfect example of Japan's irrelevancy in software. Why? Because LINE is a South Korean product. >Bullet trains. Japan leads the world, Yup, top notch engineering as mentioned. Bad news for the maglev since that's being held up in political power struggles, though. >Combination washer/dryers. They've become such a mundane commodity thanks in no small part to South Korean and Chinese mass manufacturing that Japan is hardly relevant there anymore. >Chip manufacturing. The US only has Intel, The US also has Micron and Global Foundries, along with old school guys like Texas Instruments and more. Though I agree it's mostly Intel (and Micron) pushing the envelope. Japan has a very bad track record with chip fabrication ever since they lost sight of everything, Elpida and Toshiba by far being the most tragic examples. The jury is indeed still out on Rapidus, TSMC expansion, etc., but I'm personally not holding my breath.
- shiroiushi 2y ago
  >Also, owing to this being computer hardware sitting right next to food, the things are almost always grimey. Proper menus at least are ostensibly cleaned between customers. This isn't a problem specific to Japan, though. This is Japan: if any place cleans things reliably, it's here. If you think most American restaurants clean menus between customers, I have a bridge to sell you. Many don't even bother cleaning the table, in my experience, and then get mad if you point out the table is dirty. >it's just faster to call a waiter over. American waiters absolutely hate this, but they still expect a huge "tip". But yeah, in Japan it's perfectly acceptable and normal. >Yeah, they have that since at least the 90s or something. Nothing new. It's not new in Japan, but the rest of the world still hasn't heard about them apparently (or just doesn't care about hygiene), so it might as well be new. >They're great, but the world is starting to move ahead of them with everything moving to smartphone NFC and in a way that is carrier and brand and network agnostic. I don't see that at all in the US. Transit systems there all have their own separate cards that haven't changed in 20 years. > If it wasn't obvious from the toilets, Japan is great at hardware engineering. The problem is this doesn't translate to software engineering and high tech in general. There's more to "high tech" than just software and microservices or whatever. Most software is pretty useless without hardware to run it on. Sure, if you're just focusing on stuff that's only online, you'll just use commodity HW and Japan has nothing much to offer here, but most of us have a little more to our lives than just sitting in front of a PC and surfing the internet. >LINE is a perfect example of Japan's irrelevancy in software. Why? Because LINE is a South Korean product. Sure, but that's irrelevant. What's important is what's actually used, which is what my whole post is about: what technology is actually used day-to-day by average people in Japan? Japan: LINE. US: SMS. (And it's just US/Canada that are dinosaurs here; all other countries use some kind of modern chat app.) >Bad news for the maglev since that's being held up in political power struggles, though. I haven't seen anything concrete here, just the one thing about Shizuoka prefecture (I think) complaining. >They've become such a mundane commodity thanks in no small part to South Korean and Chinese mass manufacturing that Japan is hardly relevant there anymore. They're relevant in Japan, where they're fairly common (and made by Japanese manufacturers mostly). Back in the US, they're almost completely unheard of.

Dalewyn 2y ago

>Eating out. At many Japanese restaurants, you have a tablet computer at your table, or you get a QR code to order on your phone. You use the tablet/web app (which admittedly doesn't always have the greatest UI, esp when you switch to English) to order your food and maybe pay. That experience is horrible, and not just because pecking at a small screen for ants is horrible. Quite often the thing flat out doesn't work and/or is laid out in the most incomprehensible way possible that it's just faster to call a waiter over. Also, owing to this being computer hardware sitting right next to food, the things are almost always grimey. Proper menus at least are ostensibly cleaned between customers. This isn't a problem specific to Japan, though. >Toilets: they all have electronic controls to spray your butt after you poop. You can select water pressure, activate seat heating, etc. Yeah, they have that since at least the 90s or something. Nothing new. I appreciate the engineering that goes into them, but it's a case of Galapagos. >Public transit fare cards: in Japan, virtually every public transit system uses "IC cards" based on the Felica NFC chip. They're great, but the world is starting to move ahead of them with everything moving to smartphone NFC and in a way that is carrier and brand and network agnostic. >Remote-control air-conditioners. They're great, particularly with how quiet they are. If it wasn't obvious from the toilets, Japan is great at hardware engineering. The problem is this doesn't translate to software engineering and high tech in general. >Interpersonal messaging. In Japan, everyone uses LINE. LINE is a perfect example of Japan's irrelevancy in software. Why? Because LINE is a South Korean product. >Bullet trains. Japan leads the world, Yup, top notch engineering as mentioned. Bad news for the maglev since that's being held up in political power struggles, though. >Combination washer/dryers. They've become such a mundane commodity thanks in no small part to South Korean and Chinese mass manufacturing that Japan is hardly relevant there anymore. >Chip manufacturing. The US only has Intel, The US also has Micron and Global Foundries, along with old school guys like Texas Instruments and more. Though I agree it's mostly Intel (and Micron) pushing the envelope. Japan has a very bad track record with chip fabrication ever since they lost sight of everything, Elpida and Toshiba by far being the most tragic examples. The jury is indeed still out on Rapidus, TSMC expansion, etc., but I'm personally not holding my breath.

shiroiushi 2y ago
>Also, owing to this being computer hardware sitting right next to food, the things are almost always grimey. Proper menus at least are ostensibly cleaned between customers. This isn't a problem specific to Japan, though. This is Japan: if any place cleans things reliably, it's here. If you think most American restaurants clean menus between customers, I have a bridge to sell you. Many don't even bother cleaning the table, in my experience, and then get mad if you point out the table is dirty. >it's just faster to call a waiter over. American waiters absolutely hate this, but they still expect a huge "tip". But yeah, in Japan it's perfectly acceptable and normal. >Yeah, they have that since at least the 90s or something. Nothing new. It's not new in Japan, but the rest of the world still hasn't heard about them apparently (or just doesn't care about hygiene), so it might as well be new. >They're great, but the world is starting to move ahead of them with everything moving to smartphone NFC and in a way that is carrier and brand and network agnostic. I don't see that at all in the US. Transit systems there all have their own separate cards that haven't changed in 20 years. > If it wasn't obvious from the toilets, Japan is great at hardware engineering. The problem is this doesn't translate to software engineering and high tech in general. There's more to "high tech" than just software and microservices or whatever. Most software is pretty useless without hardware to run it on. Sure, if you're just focusing on stuff that's only online, you'll just use commodity HW and Japan has nothing much to offer here, but most of us have a little more to our lives than just sitting in front of a PC and surfing the internet. >LINE is a perfect example of Japan's irrelevancy in software. Why? Because LINE is a South Korean product. Sure, but that's irrelevant. What's important is what's actually used, which is what my whole post is about: what technology is actually used day-to-day by average people in Japan? Japan: LINE. US: SMS. (And it's just US/Canada that are dinosaurs here; all other countries use some kind of modern chat app.) >Bad news for the maglev since that's being held up in political power struggles, though. I haven't seen anything concrete here, just the one thing about Shizuoka prefecture (I think) complaining. >They've become such a mundane commodity thanks in no small part to South Korean and Chinese mass manufacturing that Japan is hardly relevant there anymore. They're relevant in Japan, where they're fairly common (and made by Japanese manufacturers mostly). Back in the US, they're almost completely unheard of.