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I came here to comment and guess who I saw lol I think this is such a boneheaded move. Why is the Japanese government so anachronistic and unreformed when it c

by kiyoto 14y ago

I came here to comment and guess who I saw lol I think this is such a boneheaded move. Why is the Japanese government so anachronistic and unreformed when it comes to Internet policy?

quanticle 14y ago
It's because Japanese society is backwards and unreformed when it comes to its dealings with the Internet. [1] 1. http://neojaponisme.com/2009/05/19/the-fear-of-the-internet/ http://neojaponisme.com/2009/05/19/the-fear-of-the-internet/
- D9u 14y ago
  Sort of like the USA. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ert.20312/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ert.20312/abstrac...
  - w1ntermute 14y ago
    No, not at all like the USA. Japan is at least 10 years behind when it comes to the internet. It's a completely different situation. You have to experience it to understand it. The Japanese simply haven't grokked the idea of moving large aspects of their lives online, or even why they should bother to try to understand the internet.
    - sukuriant 14y ago
      And yet they make shows like Eden of the East which contains a system with that namesake that's basically Facebook meets Metafilter meets Google
      - hkmurakami 14y ago
        imo Japanese subculture citizens (especially those who really live and breathe it) are much farther away from the "mainstream" culture and society than their counterparts in the West. It is more 'normal' to be 'not normal' over here.
    - mattm 14y ago
      And yet I have gigabit internet here.
      - w1ntermute 14y ago
        I don't mean their internet infrastructure, I mean their actual utilization of the internet.
    - ddellacosta 14y ago
      w1ntermute, I have to disagree with you here. If we are going to generalize, the Japanese are most definitely clued-in to the Internet. They may not use Facebook as much, but they have one of the highest usages of Twitter in the world (a little old, but here: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-top-countries_b26726 http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-top-countries_... and here: http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/09/huge-in-japan-twitter/ http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/09/huge-in-japan-twitter/), and they use the Internet for a lot of things like making purchases, finding product/store/restaurant/etc. reviews, auctions, etc. And, despite the relatively lower numbers, tons of Japanese are on Facebook (although, this article describes how teenagers are more into Instagram and other photo-sharing services, moreso than FB, which makes sense consider Japan's history of photo sharing via feature-phones...but I digress: http://japan.cnet.com/news/commentary/35029092/ http://japan.cnet.com/news/commentary/35029092/). AND, let us not forget venerable old 2chan, the inspiration for 4chan(!). To say that they are ten years behind I think is pretty much not the case. Which all just goes to say that it is even more of a shame that the government doesn't have a clue about this shit. Now, if you are talking about building an environment to create new web businesses, or adopting new software development techniques, then maybe they are behind...but not ten years (and most everyone is behind the U.S. on this as far as I've seen). -A guy who works at a Japanese internet company in Tokyo
      - w1ntermute 14y ago
        Things are not nearly as rosy as you're painting them: http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/15/3628376/japan-digital-content-ecosystem-hulu-country-future http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/15/3628376/japan-digital-con... All I can say is that my experience living in Tokyo has been completely different from what you suggest. Like the Neojaponisme article suggests, there is a general "fear and loathing" of the internet among the Japanese.
    - veidr 14y ago
      You are confusing 'different' with '10 years behind'. Let's just stipulate that fiber-optic and mobile internet infrastructure is light-years ahead of the US, since you say you are only talking about utilization. So no, Japanese people don't tend to do Facebook. On the other hand, they have 2channel, which was launched when Zuckerberg was still jerking off to Asian porn at prep school, and which 1 out of 10 Japanese people use. It's completely anonymous and pretty much the opposite of Facebook, but it's still the Internet. Just about everybody you see on the train, old grannies included, is sitting quietly, not talking, accessing some type of Internet-delivered content on their phone -- and we doing so well before "smartphone" was a word and when people were still stocking up on canned goods for Y2K. (I was a "PDA" developer back then.) My Japanese mother-in-law, as is typical, is fully conversant in using Skype, Flickr, Google+ or whatever... to check our the latest baby pics. Not to post her own stuff, because she certainly wouldn't want to do that. So if by 'the internet' you mean 'moving large aspects of their lives online' (in public, where others can see what they are up to), then no, people aren't really into that here. Privacy is a way deeper concept in Japan, both pre-Internet and in the present day. Even if people write blogs, they are often totally anonymous. They avoid putting their names on their apartment mailboxes and shun transparent garbage bags so that their neighbors can't see what's in their trash, too. That's different, but it's not '10 years behind' any more than Japan is '10 years behind in watching Survivor and Hardcore Pawn reality shows'. (Disclaimer: I'm not Japanese, but I don't use social networks either, and I like it that way.) [1]: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/04/06/reference/2channels-success-rests-on-anonymity/ http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/04/06/reference/2chann...
      - w1ntermute 14y ago
        You're forgetting about digital media: http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/15/3628376/japan-digital-content-ecosystem-hulu-country-future http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/15/3628376/japan-digital-con... There's a lot more to moving your life online than social networking. I'm not big on social networking either. But that doesn't mean I still rent my videos at the corner store or go to the local record store to buy albums on CD.
        veidr 14y ago
- hkmurakami 14y ago
  skimmed the linked article and was quite impressed with the thorough analysis. :)
  - w1ntermute 14y ago
    Neojaponisme is a great site, it's too bad there hasn't been any new content since the new year started.
Pitarou 14y ago
> Why is the Japanese government so anachronistic and unreformed about Internet policy? Take a step back. Why is the Japanese government so anachronistic and unreformed?

by kiyoto 14y ago

I came here to comment and guess who I saw lol I think this is such a boneheaded move. Why is the Japanese government so anachronistic and unreformed when it comes to Internet policy?

quanticle 14y ago

It's because Japanese society is backwards and unreformed when it comes to its dealings with the Internet. [1] 1. http://neojaponisme.com/2009/05/19/the-fear-of-the-internet/ http://neojaponisme.com/2009/05/19/the-fear-of-the-internet/

D9u 14y ago
Sort of like the USA. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ert.20312/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ert.20312/abstrac...
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  No, not at all like the USA. Japan is at least 10 years behind when it comes to the internet. It's a completely different situation. You have to experience it to understand it. The Japanese simply haven't grokked the idea of moving large aspects of their lives online, or even why they should bother to try to understand the internet.
  - sukuriant 14y ago
    And yet they make shows like Eden of the East which contains a system with that namesake that's basically Facebook meets Metafilter meets Google
    - hkmurakami 14y ago
      imo Japanese subculture citizens (especially those who really live and breathe it) are much farther away from the "mainstream" culture and society than their counterparts in the West. It is more 'normal' to be 'not normal' over here.
  - mattm 14y ago
    And yet I have gigabit internet here.
    - w1ntermute 14y ago
      I don't mean their internet infrastructure, I mean their actual utilization of the internet.
  - ddellacosta 14y ago
    w1ntermute, I have to disagree with you here. If we are going to generalize, the Japanese are most definitely clued-in to the Internet. They may not use Facebook as much, but they have one of the highest usages of Twitter in the world (a little old, but here: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-top-countries_b26726 http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-top-countries_... and here: http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/09/huge-in-japan-twitter/ http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/09/huge-in-japan-twitter/), and they use the Internet for a lot of things like making purchases, finding product/store/restaurant/etc. reviews, auctions, etc. And, despite the relatively lower numbers, tons of Japanese are on Facebook (although, this article describes how teenagers are more into Instagram and other photo-sharing services, moreso than FB, which makes sense consider Japan's history of photo sharing via feature-phones...but I digress: http://japan.cnet.com/news/commentary/35029092/ http://japan.cnet.com/news/commentary/35029092/). AND, let us not forget venerable old 2chan, the inspiration for 4chan(!). To say that they are ten years behind I think is pretty much not the case. Which all just goes to say that it is even more of a shame that the government doesn't have a clue about this shit. Now, if you are talking about building an environment to create new web businesses, or adopting new software development techniques, then maybe they are behind...but not ten years (and most everyone is behind the U.S. on this as far as I've seen). -A guy who works at a Japanese internet company in Tokyo
    - w1ntermute 14y ago
      Things are not nearly as rosy as you're painting them: http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/15/3628376/japan-digital-content-ecosystem-hulu-country-future http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/15/3628376/japan-digital-con... All I can say is that my experience living in Tokyo has been completely different from what you suggest. Like the Neojaponisme article suggests, there is a general "fear and loathing" of the internet among the Japanese.
  - veidr 14y ago
    You are confusing 'different' with '10 years behind'. Let's just stipulate that fiber-optic and mobile internet infrastructure is light-years ahead of the US, since you say you are only talking about utilization. So no, Japanese people don't tend to do Facebook. On the other hand, they have 2channel, which was launched when Zuckerberg was still jerking off to Asian porn at prep school, and which 1 out of 10 Japanese people use. It's completely anonymous and pretty much the opposite of Facebook, but it's still the Internet. Just about everybody you see on the train, old grannies included, is sitting quietly, not talking, accessing some type of Internet-delivered content on their phone -- and we doing so well before "smartphone" was a word and when people were still stocking up on canned goods for Y2K. (I was a "PDA" developer back then.) My Japanese mother-in-law, as is typical, is fully conversant in using Skype, Flickr, Google+ or whatever... to check our the latest baby pics. Not to post her own stuff, because she certainly wouldn't want to do that. So if by 'the internet' you mean 'moving large aspects of their lives online' (in public, where others can see what they are up to), then no, people aren't really into that here. Privacy is a way deeper concept in Japan, both pre-Internet and in the present day. Even if people write blogs, they are often totally anonymous. They avoid putting their names on their apartment mailboxes and shun transparent garbage bags so that their neighbors can't see what's in their trash, too. That's different, but it's not '10 years behind' any more than Japan is '10 years behind in watching Survivor and Hardcore Pawn reality shows'. (Disclaimer: I'm not Japanese, but I don't use social networks either, and I like it that way.) [1]: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/04/06/reference/2channels-success-rests-on-anonymity/ http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/04/06/reference/2chann...
    - w1ntermute 14y ago
      You're forgetting about digital media: http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/15/3628376/japan-digital-content-ecosystem-hulu-country-future http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/15/3628376/japan-digital-con... There's a lot more to moving your life online than social networking. I'm not big on social networking either. But that doesn't mean I still rent my videos at the corner store or go to the local record store to buy albums on CD.
      - veidr 14y ago
hkmurakami 14y ago
skimmed the linked article and was quite impressed with the thorough analysis. :)
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  Neojaponisme is a great site, it's too bad there hasn't been any new content since the new year started.

Pitarou 14y ago

> Why is the Japanese government so anachronistic and unreformed about Internet policy? Take a step back. Why is the Japanese government so anachronistic and unreformed?