7 ms·

As Apple and Samsung dominate, Japan’s tech giants are in a free fall

74 points by ylem 14y ago

kinkora 14y ago
Interesting article and it echos my own views of Japan after visiting the country last month for the first time in my life and spending 2.5 weeks there. I grew up in the decade[1] where Japan absolutely dominated the consumer electronics industry hence, I've always long held this view of Japan being one of the most technological advanced economy in the world. But when I actually went there, my view completely changed. They still are, to a certain extent[2], but from a tech industry standpoint they are starting to lag behind IMHO. For example, when I was in Akihabara, I was told it was a electronics mecca filled with all the latest Japanese gadgets and gizmos but when I was there last month, all I saw was a myriad of chinese made/manufactured stuff. Most of the electronics stuff I've already seen in my own country and there was nothing much that looked truly new[3]. Maybe if I was walking down these streets 15 years ago, I would have been pretty wide-eyed. Even if you look at the one electronic device that a Japanese brand still dominates (which is mobile), the Docomo made mobile phones are all mostly using android and majority of them are flip phones[4]! And if you don't see someone using a Docomo made-phone, it will most likely be an iPhone. Don't take me wrong, Japan still is a fairly advanced country[5] but my trip there last month made me realize that they are fast falling behind the rest of their Asian counterparts: China and Korea in particular. These once mighty Japanese tech companies needs to start making bold innovative moves instead of living in the past and being hankered down by bureaucracy. If they don't do it soon enough, one day it will be too late and it will have a devastating effect on the Japanese economy. [1] Child of the 80s/90s. [2] Japan may be losing innovative and competitive ground in terms of anything tech related but they are still quite ahead in some aspects. I.e. The transportation industry (trains in particular) are light years ahead. The Shinkansen(bullet train) itself was built in the 60s but still looks like it was designed in the 25th century. [3] Most of the electronics were "new" and "latest" but none of them were "unique". They were the same Korean, Taiwanese or China branded electronics that you see anywhere else in the world (or at least in my country). You will be hard pressed to find any funky new Japanese gadgets or gizmos. [4] http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/05/ntt-docomo-906i.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/05/ntt-do... [5] One thing I admired when I was in Japan is that, a lot of their technology (transportation system, infrastructure, telecommunications, etc) were built decades ago but it still looks fairly advanced to this day. Though, you will noticed it is starting to age.
- larsberg 14y ago
  Did you manage to hit the Yodobashi in Akiba? That's really the place to see both some more Japanese products and get a wonderfully overwhelming "this is what it'd be like if you put a Fry's inside a Fry's, added a Best Buy, and threw in an amazing food court" experience. The electronics dealers along the Akiba side streets are a great place to get off-generation parts on the cheap. For example, last-generation RAM upgrades for your machine, at prices pretty decently discounted from newegg. But I certainly found the rest of Akiba more dedicated to anime/manga/jpop idols at this point than the electronics-focus that we (I'm also a child of the 80s/90s) had been promised.
  - kinkora 14y ago
    Funny you mentioned Yodobashi because I actually stayed 5 minutes away from Shinjuku station when I was in Tokyo and did stumble into it when I was roaming the streets. My impression of Akiba? Interesting no doubt and you are right in a sense that they are probably closest to the "electronic-focus Japan" that we imagined but it was still filled with the same Chinese, Korean or Taiwanese branded stuff. My point is, gone are the domination of Japanese branded electronics (with maybe the exception of Sony) in these sort of places in Japan.
- gaius 14y ago
  El Reg came to more-or-less the same conclusion a month ago: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/23/akihabara_decline_and_fall/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/23/akihabara_decline_an...
  - w1ntermute 14y ago
    The issue is that a lot of technically-minded foreigners go to Akihabara without realizing that for a lot of Japanese people, the place is just as much about otaku stuff (manga, anime, cosplay) as it is about electronics. And then they get disappointed when they realize that otaku stuff is what makes up most of Akiba.
    - 14y ago
batgaijin 14y ago
I think it's primarily because 1). these companies push their employees so hard and 2). a majority of them don't know English 3). software programming is seen as something for nerds too lame to do electrical engineering 1 is important because as we all know, if you are a good programmer, it's not because you are _good_ it's because you spend your spare time catching up on other facets and honing your skills. When there isn't time for that, what do you expect to happen? 2 is equally important simply because Japan is stuck in their own land of tech help. I think things are much better now because of Google Translate and such, but most Japanese programmers have basically been isolated from us. 3 is the biggest one. Despite Ruby got invented there, most programmers there do not know it. There are no Japanese Operating Systems. There is no Japanese business software market. Most Japanese companies have absolutely _terrible_ sites from last decade. [as a source http://www.economist.com/node/18958643 http://www.economist.com/node/18958643] So, what's to be done about it? Well, luckily Japan has insanely high internet speeds, and everything is moving to virtualization everywhere else. So, at the end of the day, there is a big chance that everything could shift in Japan at a much, much higher rate than in America. However, this will take a number of consulting companies pushing pretty pro American attitudes towards business culture as well as programming, which simply isn't going to fly all that well there. Personally, I think Japan needs a much higher number of startups, and they need to basically do a startup chile thing for web startups. They need them badly, they need a majority of the existing work force radically retrained, and the people coming into the work force need to be pushed in very different directions compared to the usual. Japan has the might, they have the know how. The main problems are simply that they can't keep up with the rate of development and change that other companies can handle, and the only way that's going to change is if these companies start isolating portions of themselves like startups. My personal idea, which I would be very happy to see go into use, would be to start holding out of work 'bounties'. Coolest Erlang program developed this month gets $2000! Best new language gets $5000! That pushes people to become better, share knowledge, and find other smart people to get ahead and get the money, which would hopefully lead to those groups of people doing startups together after finding a possible 'founder'. Also: there is no FSF/EFF in Japan. And because of the max 1% of the budge the military gets they don't even have the intelligence companies or the drive for them as we do. p.s. I can't read Japanese, so everything I know is hearsay.
technoslut 14y ago
I wonder if Japan suffers from a younger generation or a something being lost in translation. I'm reminded of this article: http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/24/3177332/ia-oliver-reichenstein-writer-interview-good-design-is-invisible http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/24/3177332/ia-oliver-reichens... >Japanese web or app design is not comparable to Japanese art, graphic design or architecture. I could fill a page explaining why. It has to do with the way Japanese read, with the corporate fear of doing something different, and with the generally low level of design for the masses. >One reason why Japanese web and app design feels weak is that technology requires good active and passive knowledge of English. English is the lingua franca of contemporary web and app development, both of our tools and our discourse. Even if you master English-based Objective-C or JavaScript, if you are not able to communicate with the international community of developers and designers, you miss out on what is desirable, even what is possible. Japanese developers and designers that don’t speak English are trapped within the relatively low level of tech and design that currently reigns in the Japanese corporate world. ----- >Even the Japanese companies’ strengths matter less now, as consumers have lost the willingness to pay a premium for quality. This is not true or Apple would not be as successful as they are today. In some areas foreign manufacturers have caught up enough where quality is less of an issue such as TVs. Consumers now value the TV less. This is not true of smartphones, tablets, or cars. The latter is an area that Japan still carries a heavy amount of influence.
- verroq 14y ago
  Not just web development. Programming in general. Can't imagine what it would be like to learn programming and don't understand English.
  - stcredzero 14y ago
    > Can't imagine what it would be like to learn programming and not understand English. (I read your sentence with an implied subject, which is fine for casual grammar, but the second phrase is subjunctive because the first is, so "do not" and "don't" fit poorly there, even for casual speech.) Just imagine everything in a different language. Hydro Quebec had an application in French. This is more evidence that community is key for programming. Community even trumps native language!
mrschwabe 14y ago
Nintendo is also at risk of free fall. If the WiiU doesn't perform well this may be the last home console unit we see them release. Not to mention their mobile gaming market has been decimated by Apple (IMO the 3DS should have been cancelled and redeveloped as a 3DTablet to compete head on with iPad)
- Tycho 14y ago
  Wouldn't say Nintendo is remotely at risk of free-fall. I think they are slightly at risk of losing the viability of running their own games platform, a self reliant strategy which suits their conservative, long-term philosophy (Nintendo is a much older company than almost everything in the tech sector). But if they have to pack-in their hardware business, they still have their IP, their human capital, their connections, their marketing abilities. Mario on the AppStore would be a licence to print money. They just wouldn't be in control of their own destiny as much as before. I can imagine them signing an exclusivity deal with Apple, who unlike the other players in the game space don't have an internal development division.
  - mrschwabe 14y ago
    Good points and yeah, heck you're right Nintendo is over a century old. But I think more likely than a Nintendo/Apple partnership - is a Sony/Nintendo partnership. A deal that would leverage both companies' strengths to more effectively compete against Apple. Apple is now Nintendo's biggest competitor, a deal with them is a last resort and would certainly be a white flag end of their hardware division.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
    Losing control of the platform would also mean many of their publishing deals would disappear, however. I believe that's quite a large source of revenue, the Nintendo royalty on every single Wii and DS game sold.
- jobu 14y ago
  Thanks for bringing up Nintento. The Wii truly was an innovative product, but I can't think of any other must-have product coming from Japan in the last 10-15 years.
nradov 14y ago
Much of this was predicted pretty well in Alex Kerr's 2002 book "Dogs And Demons: Tales From the Dark Side of Modern Japan". Some of his criticisms seemed a little overwrought but I think his general thesis has been proven out. http://us.macmillan.com/dogsanddemons/AlexKerr http://us.macmillan.com/dogsanddemons/AlexKerr
bergie 14y ago
I suppose Japan is suffering from the island effect, at least in their mobile sector. Like Finland, they got a preview into the smartphone world (Japan with i-mode, Finland with WAP). Companies were built, investments were made, and they flopped, burning out a lot of entrepreneurs and killing investor confidence. And then the real smartphone boom happened, and we moved into it too cautiously. I don't know enough of the French software business, but it would be reasonable to assume that they had something similar when Minitel was replaced by the web. How did the companies react and recover?
- Xixi 14y ago
  I think you are forgetting an important part of the equation: the interior market. In France it was much easier for entrepreneurs to move from the Minitel to internet, than for people to trust a new medium over a trusted one that worked seemlessly for decades. So while your average American was emptying his wallet buying stuff on the web, French were still checking their bank accounts on the Minitel. That makes for a slow start, but eventually we moved on and there has been a lot of successful web startup in France (that usually end up either moving to SV, and/or being bought by American giant, but that's another story).
mtw 14y ago
not true. Japan tech control digital photography and videography
- wisty 14y ago
  Right, they make nice glass, nice sensors, and nice processing chips. But once you've taken the shot, you use Abode Photoshop to do the editing, and share it using a PC or Mac. That is, assuming you didn't shoot with your iPhone.
  - hollerith 14y ago
    IIRC, a lot of the components in the iPhone are made by Japanese companies.
- perishabledave 14y ago
  Canon and Nikon have had their consumer market eaten away by the likes of Apple and Samsung. Sure, they still dominate in professional photography, but I can't imagine how much money they've lost and will continue to lose as smartphones get closer to reaching parity with point and shoots.
sxcurry 14y ago
I almost feel bad for Sony. I've bought Sony TV's all my life, but when it came time to buy a large flat panel TV, and I did all the comparisons, I bought a .... Samsung. No comparison - Sony just doesn't hold up anymore, and a lot of it is the internal firmware. I did buy a Sony BluRay player, and the UI is absolutely the worst piece of junk I've ever seen. Shoulda bought a Samsung!
po 14y ago
As someone who worked at Sony in the US and later founded a successful startup in japan, I feel I can speak with a bit of authority here… The main thing to realize is that this article is talking about Japanese 'tech giants' missing the boat, not HN-style software startups. For many years Japan dominated and succeeded with well-built consumer hardware. The best and brightest minds became hardware engineers at Sony, Toshiba, Fujitsu, etc… When the industry shifted to software and hardware blended together in a seamless fashion - an ecosystem bigger than the device itself - those minds were particularly ill-prepared for the fast paced, just-ship-it style development cycles that software demands. The product looked good on paper but the lifespan of the consumer relationship was inferior because it didn't include the user's newly found software lifecycle. We all know how Microsoft missed the boat when the internet came along and disrupted their office/windows strategy. Now, imagine a whole country filled with Microsofts. Japan has floundered in denial for a while. The good news for Japan is that the in the last few years I have seen a huge growth of people diving into it. There are a ton of coworking spaces and incubators popping up, and people seem to be focusing on software now. I actually think the big earthquake was a bit of an awakening for people here. More people want to work at a company doing something cool. The younger generation seems to understand that hardware is no longer king, even if they don't have the mentorship and guidance they would have in the US. It may take a bit of time but I think it is already under way. They have amazing work ethic and drive and I am hopeful that Japan turns the ship back towards innovation.
- anuraj 14y ago
  It all boils down to a population problem. Japan is ageing and software demands huge work force. Only India and may be China in the near future can bridge the gap. It is not accident that Silicon Valley has more Indian engineers than any other foreign nationality.
  - w1ntermute 14y ago
    The problem with India is that the market has been saturated. All the really good Indian engineers have migrated to Silicon Valley, and the rest of the good ones have been snapped up by the likes of Microsoft India and Google India. As many companies who have tried to outsource in the last few years and have been burned in the process have learned, the engineers they've been getting have a poor grasp of computer science and an even poorer grasp of English. Until the public school system is fixed so that the Indian masses can get a good education, the situation isn't going to rectify itself very quickly.
rubashov 14y ago
Isn't this to some degree a matter of fixating on consumer brands? To my understanding Japan still runs a massive trade surplus in high tech equipment and parts and has many super profitable firms making that stuff. The parts that go into or make your phone or TV comes from Japan. This is just what I hear.
TorKlingberg 14y ago
I wonder why Samsung and LG are doing so much better. They are just the kind of giant do-everything conglomerates that are failing in Japan. South Korean culture is rather similar to Japan, especially in business and education. Some things I can think of: 1) Korea got started later, and has not had the chance yet to get stale like Japan did in the 90's. 2) The population pyramid is not as inverted. 3) Korea has more PC focus, while Japan is about more gadgets. See how Starcraft, a PC game, is enormous in South Korea but unknown in Japan. That means more software and programming focus early on. 4) Lower labor costs. Not as low as China, but low enough to compete.
- pheon 14y ago
  Because Korean is hungry, just like China. Japan thinks nothing will change, everything continue smoothly, nothing bad will happen. ... and yes I live and work here(Tokyo) for many years.
  - snogglethorpe 14y ago
    Yup. I blame the bubble. I think many of Japan's woes are really a direct result of its earlier success. Post-WWII Japan was extremely poor, and succeeded incredibly because they had a crazy-good work ethic, a relatively well-educated population and tradition of industrial development, and were willing to make sacrifices; as you state, "they were hungry." However the success that followed resulted in changing the very attitudes that engendered that success, and the bubble with its excesses accelerated this change greatly. Japanese confidence, lifestyle, etc, are all now firmly that of a rich, "we've succeeded! time to kick back!" country ... just in time to get the rug yanked out from underneath it. The instincts and mechanisms that got them so far aren't well prepared to accommodate the changing world, but having tasted wealth, the country isn't really all that eager to toss out what made it wealthy, even when that clearly isn't working so well anymore... "better the devil you know..." etc. This is the fate of all successful countries to some degree, but what I wonder is: without the extremes of the bubble, could Japan have achieved a more nuanced transition, becoming a rich country, but maybe remaining a bit more flexible and wary? I don't think it's really true that everybody thinks "nothing will change, everything continue smoothly, nothing bad will happen." Japanese people very much see the country's malaise and feel worried about the future... but merely recognizing the problem intellectually isn't enough. There has to be a change in "gut instinct" too, and that is much harder. I suppose one way to do it is to increase the pain level to the point where continuing as-is becomes intolerable, and something has to change; unfortunately that seems to be route Japan is taking... :(

74 points by ylem 14y ago

Interesting article and it echos my own views of Japan after visiting the country last month for the first time in my life and spending 2.5 weeks there. I grew up in the decade[1] where Japan absolutely dominated the consumer electronics industry hence, I've always long held this view of Japan being one of the most technological advanced economy in the world. But when I actually went there, my view completely changed. They still are, to a certain extent[2], but from a tech industry standpoint they are starting to lag behind IMHO. For example, when I was in Akihabara, I was told it was a electronics mecca filled with all the latest Japanese gadgets and gizmos but when I was there last month, all I saw was a myriad of chinese made/manufactured stuff. Most of the electronics stuff I've already seen in my own country and there was nothing much that looked truly new[3]. Maybe if I was walking down these streets 15 years ago, I would have been pretty wide-eyed. Even if you look at the one electronic device that a Japanese brand still dominates (which is mobile), the Docomo made mobile phones are all mostly using android and majority of them are flip phones[4]! And if you don't see someone using a Docomo made-phone, it will most likely be an iPhone. Don't take me wrong, Japan still is a fairly advanced country[5] but my trip there last month made me realize that they are fast falling behind the rest of their Asian counterparts: China and Korea in particular. These once mighty Japanese tech companies needs to start making bold innovative moves instead of living in the past and being hankered down by bureaucracy. If they don't do it soon enough, one day it will be too late and it will have a devastating effect on the Japanese economy. [1] Child of the 80s/90s. [2] Japan may be losing innovative and competitive ground in terms of anything tech related but they are still quite ahead in some aspects. I.e. The transportation industry (trains in particular) are light years ahead. The Shinkansen(bullet train) itself was built in the 60s but still looks like it was designed in the 25th century. [3] Most of the electronics were "new" and "latest" but none of them were "unique". They were the same Korean, Taiwanese or China branded electronics that you see anywhere else in the world (or at least in my country). You will be hard pressed to find any funky new Japanese gadgets or gizmos. [4] http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/05/ntt-docomo-906i.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/05/ntt-do... [5] One thing I admired when I was in Japan is that, a lot of their technology (transportation system, infrastructure, telecommunications, etc) were built decades ago but it still looks fairly advanced to this day. Though, you will noticed it is starting to age.

larsberg 14y ago
Did you manage to hit the Yodobashi in Akiba? That's really the place to see both some more Japanese products and get a wonderfully overwhelming "this is what it'd be like if you put a Fry's inside a Fry's, added a Best Buy, and threw in an amazing food court" experience. The electronics dealers along the Akiba side streets are a great place to get off-generation parts on the cheap. For example, last-generation RAM upgrades for your machine, at prices pretty decently discounted from newegg. But I certainly found the rest of Akiba more dedicated to anime/manga/jpop idols at this point than the electronics-focus that we (I'm also a child of the 80s/90s) had been promised.
- kinkora 14y ago
  Funny you mentioned Yodobashi because I actually stayed 5 minutes away from Shinjuku station when I was in Tokyo and did stumble into it when I was roaming the streets. My impression of Akiba? Interesting no doubt and you are right in a sense that they are probably closest to the "electronic-focus Japan" that we imagined but it was still filled with the same Chinese, Korean or Taiwanese branded stuff. My point is, gone are the domination of Japanese branded electronics (with maybe the exception of Sony) in these sort of places in Japan.
gaius 14y ago
El Reg came to more-or-less the same conclusion a month ago: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/23/akihabara_decline_and_fall/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/23/akihabara_decline_an...
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  The issue is that a lot of technically-minded foreigners go to Akihabara without realizing that for a lot of Japanese people, the place is just as much about otaku stuff (manga, anime, cosplay) as it is about electronics. And then they get disappointed when they realize that otaku stuff is what makes up most of Akiba.
  - 14y ago

batgaijin 14y ago

I think it's primarily because 1). these companies push their employees so hard and 2). a majority of them don't know English 3). software programming is seen as something for nerds too lame to do electrical engineering 1 is important because as we all know, if you are a good programmer, it's not because you are _good_ it's because you spend your spare time catching up on other facets and honing your skills. When there isn't time for that, what do you expect to happen? 2 is equally important simply because Japan is stuck in their own land of tech help. I think things are much better now because of Google Translate and such, but most Japanese programmers have basically been isolated from us. 3 is the biggest one. Despite Ruby got invented there, most programmers there do not know it. There are no Japanese Operating Systems. There is no Japanese business software market. Most Japanese companies have absolutely _terrible_ sites from last decade. [as a source http://www.economist.com/node/18958643 http://www.economist.com/node/18958643] So, what's to be done about it? Well, luckily Japan has insanely high internet speeds, and everything is moving to virtualization everywhere else. So, at the end of the day, there is a big chance that everything could shift in Japan at a much, much higher rate than in America. However, this will take a number of consulting companies pushing pretty pro American attitudes towards business culture as well as programming, which simply isn't going to fly all that well there. Personally, I think Japan needs a much higher number of startups, and they need to basically do a startup chile thing for web startups. They need them badly, they need a majority of the existing work force radically retrained, and the people coming into the work force need to be pushed in very different directions compared to the usual. Japan has the might, they have the know how. The main problems are simply that they can't keep up with the rate of development and change that other companies can handle, and the only way that's going to change is if these companies start isolating portions of themselves like startups. My personal idea, which I would be very happy to see go into use, would be to start holding out of work 'bounties'. Coolest Erlang program developed this month gets $2000! Best new language gets $5000! That pushes people to become better, share knowledge, and find other smart people to get ahead and get the money, which would hopefully lead to those groups of people doing startups together after finding a possible 'founder'. Also: there is no FSF/EFF in Japan. And because of the max 1% of the budge the military gets they don't even have the intelligence companies or the drive for them as we do. p.s. I can't read Japanese, so everything I know is hearsay.

technoslut 14y ago

I wonder if Japan suffers from a younger generation or a something being lost in translation. I'm reminded of this article: http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/24/3177332/ia-oliver-reichenstein-writer-interview-good-design-is-invisible http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/24/3177332/ia-oliver-reichens... >Japanese web or app design is not comparable to Japanese art, graphic design or architecture. I could fill a page explaining why. It has to do with the way Japanese read, with the corporate fear of doing something different, and with the generally low level of design for the masses. >One reason why Japanese web and app design feels weak is that technology requires good active and passive knowledge of English. English is the lingua franca of contemporary web and app development, both of our tools and our discourse. Even if you master English-based Objective-C or JavaScript, if you are not able to communicate with the international community of developers and designers, you miss out on what is desirable, even what is possible. Japanese developers and designers that don’t speak English are trapped within the relatively low level of tech and design that currently reigns in the Japanese corporate world. ----- >Even the Japanese companies’ strengths matter less now, as consumers have lost the willingness to pay a premium for quality. This is not true or Apple would not be as successful as they are today. In some areas foreign manufacturers have caught up enough where quality is less of an issue such as TVs. Consumers now value the TV less. This is not true of smartphones, tablets, or cars. The latter is an area that Japan still carries a heavy amount of influence.

verroq 14y ago
Not just web development. Programming in general. Can't imagine what it would be like to learn programming and don't understand English.
- stcredzero 14y ago
  > Can't imagine what it would be like to learn programming and not understand English. (I read your sentence with an implied subject, which is fine for casual grammar, but the second phrase is subjunctive because the first is, so "do not" and "don't" fit poorly there, even for casual speech.) Just imagine everything in a different language. Hydro Quebec had an application in French. This is more evidence that community is key for programming. Community even trumps native language!

mrschwabe 14y ago

Nintendo is also at risk of free fall. If the WiiU doesn't perform well this may be the last home console unit we see them release. Not to mention their mobile gaming market has been decimated by Apple (IMO the 3DS should have been cancelled and redeveloped as a 3DTablet to compete head on with iPad)

Tycho 14y ago
Wouldn't say Nintendo is remotely at risk of free-fall. I think they are slightly at risk of losing the viability of running their own games platform, a self reliant strategy which suits their conservative, long-term philosophy (Nintendo is a much older company than almost everything in the tech sector). But if they have to pack-in their hardware business, they still have their IP, their human capital, their connections, their marketing abilities. Mario on the AppStore would be a licence to print money. They just wouldn't be in control of their own destiny as much as before. I can imagine them signing an exclusivity deal with Apple, who unlike the other players in the game space don't have an internal development division.
- mrschwabe 14y ago
  Good points and yeah, heck you're right Nintendo is over a century old. But I think more likely than a Nintendo/Apple partnership - is a Sony/Nintendo partnership. A deal that would leverage both companies' strengths to more effectively compete against Apple. Apple is now Nintendo's biggest competitor, a deal with them is a last resort and would certainly be a white flag end of their hardware division.
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
  Losing control of the platform would also mean many of their publishing deals would disappear, however. I believe that's quite a large source of revenue, the Nintendo royalty on every single Wii and DS game sold.
jobu 14y ago
Thanks for bringing up Nintento. The Wii truly was an innovative product, but I can't think of any other must-have product coming from Japan in the last 10-15 years.

nradov 14y ago

Much of this was predicted pretty well in Alex Kerr's 2002 book "Dogs And Demons: Tales From the Dark Side of Modern Japan". Some of his criticisms seemed a little overwrought but I think his general thesis has been proven out. http://us.macmillan.com/dogsanddemons/AlexKerr http://us.macmillan.com/dogsanddemons/AlexKerr

bergie 14y ago

I suppose Japan is suffering from the island effect, at least in their mobile sector. Like Finland, they got a preview into the smartphone world (Japan with i-mode, Finland with WAP). Companies were built, investments were made, and they flopped, burning out a lot of entrepreneurs and killing investor confidence. And then the real smartphone boom happened, and we moved into it too cautiously. I don't know enough of the French software business, but it would be reasonable to assume that they had something similar when Minitel was replaced by the web. How did the companies react and recover?

Xixi 14y ago
I think you are forgetting an important part of the equation: the interior market. In France it was much easier for entrepreneurs to move from the Minitel to internet, than for people to trust a new medium over a trusted one that worked seemlessly for decades. So while your average American was emptying his wallet buying stuff on the web, French were still checking their bank accounts on the Minitel. That makes for a slow start, but eventually we moved on and there has been a lot of successful web startup in France (that usually end up either moving to SV, and/or being bought by American giant, but that's another story).

mtw 14y ago

not true. Japan tech control digital photography and videography

wisty 14y ago
Right, they make nice glass, nice sensors, and nice processing chips. But once you've taken the shot, you use Abode Photoshop to do the editing, and share it using a PC or Mac. That is, assuming you didn't shoot with your iPhone.
- hollerith 14y ago
  IIRC, a lot of the components in the iPhone are made by Japanese companies.
perishabledave 14y ago
Canon and Nikon have had their consumer market eaten away by the likes of Apple and Samsung. Sure, they still dominate in professional photography, but I can't imagine how much money they've lost and will continue to lose as smartphones get closer to reaching parity with point and shoots.

sxcurry 14y ago

I almost feel bad for Sony. I've bought Sony TV's all my life, but when it came time to buy a large flat panel TV, and I did all the comparisons, I bought a .... Samsung. No comparison - Sony just doesn't hold up anymore, and a lot of it is the internal firmware. I did buy a Sony BluRay player, and the UI is absolutely the worst piece of junk I've ever seen. Shoulda bought a Samsung!

po 14y ago

As someone who worked at Sony in the US and later founded a successful startup in japan, I feel I can speak with a bit of authority here… The main thing to realize is that this article is talking about Japanese 'tech giants' missing the boat, not HN-style software startups. For many years Japan dominated and succeeded with well-built consumer hardware. The best and brightest minds became hardware engineers at Sony, Toshiba, Fujitsu, etc… When the industry shifted to software and hardware blended together in a seamless fashion - an ecosystem bigger than the device itself - those minds were particularly ill-prepared for the fast paced, just-ship-it style development cycles that software demands. The product looked good on paper but the lifespan of the consumer relationship was inferior because it didn't include the user's newly found software lifecycle. We all know how Microsoft missed the boat when the internet came along and disrupted their office/windows strategy. Now, imagine a whole country filled with Microsofts. Japan has floundered in denial for a while. The good news for Japan is that the in the last few years I have seen a huge growth of people diving into it. There are a ton of coworking spaces and incubators popping up, and people seem to be focusing on software now. I actually think the big earthquake was a bit of an awakening for people here. More people want to work at a company doing something cool. The younger generation seems to understand that hardware is no longer king, even if they don't have the mentorship and guidance they would have in the US. It may take a bit of time but I think it is already under way. They have amazing work ethic and drive and I am hopeful that Japan turns the ship back towards innovation.

anuraj 14y ago
It all boils down to a population problem. Japan is ageing and software demands huge work force. Only India and may be China in the near future can bridge the gap. It is not accident that Silicon Valley has more Indian engineers than any other foreign nationality.
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  The problem with India is that the market has been saturated. All the really good Indian engineers have migrated to Silicon Valley, and the rest of the good ones have been snapped up by the likes of Microsoft India and Google India. As many companies who have tried to outsource in the last few years and have been burned in the process have learned, the engineers they've been getting have a poor grasp of computer science and an even poorer grasp of English. Until the public school system is fixed so that the Indian masses can get a good education, the situation isn't going to rectify itself very quickly.

rubashov 14y ago

Isn't this to some degree a matter of fixating on consumer brands? To my understanding Japan still runs a massive trade surplus in high tech equipment and parts and has many super profitable firms making that stuff. The parts that go into or make your phone or TV comes from Japan. This is just what I hear.

TorKlingberg 14y ago

I wonder why Samsung and LG are doing so much better. They are just the kind of giant do-everything conglomerates that are failing in Japan. South Korean culture is rather similar to Japan, especially in business and education. Some things I can think of: 1) Korea got started later, and has not had the chance yet to get stale like Japan did in the 90's. 2) The population pyramid is not as inverted. 3) Korea has more PC focus, while Japan is about more gadgets. See how Starcraft, a PC game, is enormous in South Korea but unknown in Japan. That means more software and programming focus early on. 4) Lower labor costs. Not as low as China, but low enough to compete.

pheon 14y ago
Because Korean is hungry, just like China. Japan thinks nothing will change, everything continue smoothly, nothing bad will happen. ... and yes I live and work here(Tokyo) for many years.
- snogglethorpe 14y ago
  Yup. I blame the bubble. I think many of Japan's woes are really a direct result of its earlier success. Post-WWII Japan was extremely poor, and succeeded incredibly because they had a crazy-good work ethic, a relatively well-educated population and tradition of industrial development, and were willing to make sacrifices; as you state, "they were hungry." However the success that followed resulted in changing the very attitudes that engendered that success, and the bubble with its excesses accelerated this change greatly. Japanese confidence, lifestyle, etc, are all now firmly that of a rich, "we've succeeded! time to kick back!" country ... just in time to get the rug yanked out from underneath it. The instincts and mechanisms that got them so far aren't well prepared to accommodate the changing world, but having tasted wealth, the country isn't really all that eager to toss out what made it wealthy, even when that clearly isn't working so well anymore... "better the devil you know..." etc. This is the fate of all successful countries to some degree, but what I wonder is: without the extremes of the bubble, could Japan have achieved a more nuanced transition, becoming a rich country, but maybe remaining a bit more flexible and wary? I don't think it's really true that everybody thinks "nothing will change, everything continue smoothly, nothing bad will happen." Japanese people very much see the country's malaise and feel worried about the future... but merely recognizing the problem intellectually isn't enough. There has to be a change in "gut instinct" too, and that is much harder. I suppose one way to do it is to increase the pain level to the point where continuing as-is becomes intolerable, and something has to change; unfortunately that seems to be route Japan is taking... :(