Japan still generally places more emphasis on quality over shitting out shiny new, overpriced garbage as fast as possible
Doc: “No wonder this circuit failed; it says ‘Made in Japan’.”
Marty: “What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan.”The idea that Japan was ever more technologically advanced than the US is a tough argument to make. Perhaps they had better consumer and transportation technologies, but the US led the world in nearly all other forms of technology (see silicon valley, NASA, US defense technology, etc). It’s cool the hate on the US but there’s a reason it was the world super power for decades. It’s too bad it’s turning into an anti-science christo-facist kelptocracy.
yahoo, billion dollar missiles!
I think it’s mostly that they did way better than the US in terms of making many consumer technology products widely available at a higher quality and better cost than the US did. Like, Japanese brands were huge for televisions, audio equipment and similar goods. I can think of several that were the go to brands for TVs when I was growing up, but I can’t think of a single US-based manufacturer, even a crappy one.
They also did way better in terms of building out internet access and public transport than the US has done.
It might only be within a few limited sectors, but when those sectors account for the vast majority of peoples’ interactions with technology, it’s going to have a far greater impact on their perceptions of relative advancement.
Also, in the pre-internet days, it probably helped that non-Japanese people largely didn’t see all the ways that Japan can be an extremely conservative country, like their reliance on fax machines long after pretty much every other country with the means to do so had almost entirely left them behind as obsolete.
RCA, Westinghouse, and Zenith used to be big American TV manufacturers. Westinghouse and zenith were the cheaper brands, but RCA used to make some high end models.
I mean, I know there had to have been some, but 2/3 of those are out of business and weren’t competitive with their Japanese rivals, while Zenith’s most recent “notable product” on Wikipedia dates from the 1970s and has been a subsidiary of a Korean company for nearly 30 years.
And Curtis Mathis
Eh, they seemed to have better access to new tech like phones, though most of that seems to have shifted to Korea these days.
Japan has been living in the year 2000 since 1980.
The last good year. Truly they are the most intellectually advanced society.
What happened after 2000 that made everythimg bad?
Social media maybe?
Social Media didn’t exist yet was all user groups, mailing list, irc, and AOL chat rooms. Would be another 4-5 years before they came onto the scene as we know it today
intellectually advanced society.
How do you even measure that?
Except no one can get laid apparently
And they’re a bunch of xenophobic racists.
They have 2d waifus, who needs women?
Same thing that happens everywhere. Low cost innovation gets expensive as companies grow and salaries rise, profit seekers move to exploit cheaper labor elsewhere.
That still hasn’t happened in the US though. Hardware is produced overseas but a huge chunk of the most used software in the world is produced in the US. The chips are designed in the US, some produced here but most overseas. Does that only apply to manufacturing?
Still hasn’t happened in the US? You choose a single industry as an indicator to base a claim on the state of US industry vs vast manufacturing losses the US has faced over the last 50 years?
They have no groundbreaking AI software
Neither does the US
Huh? What countries have more advanced AI than the US?
Post nuke effect expired
Maybe Japan is so advanced it already moved past the overhyped generative “AI” and that’s why we haven’t heard anything about it
Japan is living in the year 2000, since 50 years.
Looking back, I think we can say that the year 2000 was a much better time than 2025
Are they still using fax?
Largest market for fax machines…
and floppy discs
Not true. Their goverment stopped requiring floppy disks… *checks notes* …last year!
im sure its still the biggest market.
On God.
There are some things where fax still makes sense. Maybe I’m old, but I’m not a fan of “digital signatures” and “digital seals” for professional licenses. In cases where a document needs to be signed and/or sealed, I would much prefer a fax to a PDF with a “digital seal”. But that’s just me and I’m a weird dude.
There are some things where fax still makes sense
Nope.
Fax is insecure, you’d be better off signing w/o a “digital seal” or whatever and emailing it in. You can also print, sign, scan, and send, just like w/ a fax, but send as a PDF instead of insecurely over the telephone wires. I’ve done both digital signatures and scanned regular signatures, both work and are better than fax.
Modern PDF signing creates a digital fingerprint showing the device it was used on, whose credentials were used, a timestamp, and even a location if location services are turned on.
But yea, I guess all that just can’t compete with the ironclad security of a fucking ink pen. Oh, sorry. A copy of an ink pen. So much more secure and traceable.
what does that even mean?
I think it means that they were ahead of the curve prior to the year 2000, which is when they started to fall behind the curve.
Not going to comment on the accuracy, but it makes sense to me.
Anon probably thinks the gundam statues are just statues
Hentai happened
They invented Hikikomori.
no they didn’t lol hikikomori have existed in some form throughout the world for centuries
They named it. Japan created whole modern corporate working culture, the problem is they overdosed with their invention.
Anon forgets the switch:console ideals crystalized
Nintendo Switch 2 will be released this year
Because Japan has become conservative in everything it seems, including technology…
