Apple's Role in Japan during the Tohoku Earthquake | Hacker News Reader

Apple's Role in Japan during the Tohoku Earthquake

kevinrose.com

239 pointssahillavingia81 comments

My father-in-law works in Tokyo, but lives in Kamakura. He wrote us a long email about his journey home. Because trains were not running, the only option was to walk the 60+ kilometers home. All along the way, he saw people finding places to sleep in bars, stores, even 7-11s. All of them were full, so he could only keep on walking. Eventually, he found a bar that had room for him to come and sleep on the floor, so that he could continue his journey home in the morning. There was no food on the shelves of any store, so people had to share what they had with each other.

Allowing people to sleep in the Apple stores must have been incredibly important to the staff. God knows how they might have fared otherwise.

I live in Tokyo. Many, many people slept at their offices on Friday night. That wasn't uncommon at all. Indeed, I'm at a loss to understand why would anyone think that was an exceptional decision by Apple (not saying you're one of them, but OP seems to be).

Maybe your father-in-law was one of the millions who got stranded halfway home, or maybe he really wanted to be with his family. But he too could have probably slept at his office instead.

Edit: for example, "many of [BofA Merrill Lynch's] bankers even remained in the office overnight because they couldn't get home. The same thing happened to Goldman workers. Because of transport disruptions, bankers returned to their desks at 5.30 pm and then slept in the office.

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-did-the-banks-do-when-th...

Speaking from personal experience, other major events which can result in a Japanese salaryman sleeping at their office include "the day is Monday", etc. Apparently moving one's toothbrush is a sign of commitment in romantic comedies? I had a toothbrush and shaving kit in my desk for three years. My boss had three changes of clothes.

This is very off-topic, but I am curious about this cultural habit of Japan. Does spending 2X more hours at the office actually get 2X more work done? I tend to lose focus rapidly after 9 or 10 hours.

searchyc.com + [patio11 salaryman] for anecdotes, but the short answer is "No, it is absolutely not the case that the hours make Japan more productive."

Author mentions nuclear/acid rain, there are no reports of this. I'm following NHK as well as more lucid western stories and all of them have the Fukushima reactors as worst case not as bad as Three Mile Island, let alone Chernobyl.

For English information about what's going on, there's:

http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/2530/japan-earthquake...

http://gakuranman.com/great-tohoku-earthquake/#live

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/japan_quake/

http://twitter.com/_niten/tokyo-disaster-info/members (list I made)

Check out this little nugget at the bottom of Timeout Tokyo:

Suntory vending machines have emergency levers beneath a sticker on the upper-right corners. Pull the sticker off, pull the lever firmly and you'll get free drinks.

They built a backdoor into their own vending machines for emergencies and have followed up and gotten the information out there. Free juice for the weary! It was sleeping there the whole time, very japanese.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12163087@N04/4202645718/

Suntory Holdings Limited サントリーホールディングス株式会社, Established in 1899

That's the definition of cool.

There exists a particular Japanese megacorp in Nagoya. Like many megacorps, it has a long list of acceptance tests for any systems it ships internally or externally. Two tests on that list:

1) If it would normally exchange money-for-X, we have to be able to tell it to disburse X-for-nothing.

2) If it would normally exchange money-for-X, failure modes of our ability to tell it to disburse X-for-nothing must cause the system to fail into X-for-nothing.

e.g. If it were hypothetically a vending machine, a network connection that let you send it a message to turn off needing money would meet #1, and a heartbeat hourly where failure to receive the heartbeat would turn off needing money would meet #2.

Anyhow, those two rules are in the strictest category in the SOP: if you fudge one in an acceptance test, the system does not ship. If a system which has somehow made it into production is discovered to not be in compliance, several somebodies will not be going home until it is either in compliance or removed for service.

I agree, Suntory's machines are an excellently engineered. I want to emphasize that this level of commitment to engineering excellence is not anomalous here.

Japanese megacorps: woe unto thee who has to use our web applications, but for this sort of consideration, we seriously know our stuff.

There are no reports of nuclear rain, but the news has been advising us to watch out for it. (Even as far as Gifu!)

It was on TV though, so I have no links.

The latest measurements are 4μSv/h at one of the measuring stations (i.e. on site). In general, you'd expect people farther away to be exposed to less. This level is unlikely to kill anyone particularly soon, but it's not exactly a healthy level either. That said, there's a LOT more danger from the hydrogen explosions (which have killed a few people, I believe). Sadly, we can expect more of those as long as they're forced to vent gas.

"As of 0:30 pm, the measured value of radiation dose near MP6 was 4μSv/h. The increase of the radiation dose cannot be confirmed at this time."

Source: http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031405-e....

It's a little bizarre how people are either 1) upset at Apple for not doing more 2) expecting all companies to do something like this, thus this isn't exceptional.

Addressing point 1 first; there's still time for them to do more. Not only that, but why should private companies be obligated to fund a nation in times of crisis? Sure, it's great when they do, but they already DO pay for this in the form of taxes. Apple is a company; their primary obligation is to their shareholders: their business is business.

Now for point 2: see point one. This is exceptional, and this is really neat. This isn't just some donation of funds to another fund; this was a mandated relief effort in the face of an actual crisis. And it showed (whether or not you think it sincere) that Apple cares. I can't be anything but happy that I support such a company.

The Apple haters just can't let anything go past without taking a swing. And the irony is they accuse us of having a reality distortion field...

See jaysonelliot's comment here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2325377

This is hard to say without attacking something that is clearly great and helpful to a lot of people, but I think its fair to say that businesses and people all over Japan are currently putting in unbelievable efforts and singling out Apple here just seems to be putting the most bizarre western tech community lens over the thing.

Regarding point one, I think some people use this excuse too readily. As a single example consider: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood IMO if companies want to assert rights as individuals I think it is permissible to expect to some level of common morality. This doesn't mean a company has to act in a compassionate or moral manner, just as an individual, but I see no reason to give a corporation a free pass because they might have shareholders and a profit motive.

Apple is a company; their primary obligation is to their shareholders

Apple is doing business in Japan, where that notion of company purpose isn't necessarily so universally applied.

Well, this is great publicity for Apple. More importantly, not doing it would be terrible publicity. Still, I don't think that has anything to do with it. This is just something normal in times of crisis, where humanity is the driving factor, and whether there is a company involved is irrelevant. I'm pretty sure the things described here have happened in several other places.

Another point I'd like to bring up is that I feel all the new gadgetry is a bit over-hyped in the news (not just here). I wonder if a few decades ago people were so ecstatic about the telephone, radio or television.

Donating to the relief effort is the right thing to do. The US Chamber of Commerce has a list of over 140 companies who have donated to the relief effort in Japan including Microsoft who is committing $2 Millions. See the below link for the full list: http://bclc.uschamber.com/Programs/disaster/corporate-aid-tr...

Apple has a Japanese division who makes components and batteries for Apple products. The earthquake is disrupting the production of the iPad2. So if they won't give for humanitarian reasons it makes sense for them to help rebuild Japan for practical reasons. They have money they could give but so far have not. Let's hope they change their tune.

Amazed people are making a big deal that Apple put up their staff for the night and took care of them. This is what every company should do.

The real story here is how valuable and important free internet access points are. We should all support companies and individuals that provide free network access.

As long as they're going out of their way, they would certainly waive the connection fee for internet access if there was one, of all things.

This is of course what Apple (and any other company) _should_ have done in such a situation, but they sure deserve some recognition for actually doing it.

Agree. I want to say companies that do this should be the rule, not the exception.

I remember when the floods hit Mumbai few years ago, restaurants across the city stayed opened through the night feeding folks, in many cases for free.

As near as I can tell, it is the rule right now in Japan.

What surprises me most is the immediate reactions of the senior managers.

I wonder if that's brilliant sense or even better, part of an 'Apple culture' I'm not familiar with.

I think it's just being a human being that's in a position to help another human being.

Good people are good people, regardless of who they work for.

True, but it seems to have been unanimous and immediate at Apple. Good people are good people, but it seems like quite a few of them work for Apple. I wonder if this would happen in the US too, or if it has something to do with Japanese culture?

I'm going more along the lines of this is HN, and there are tons of stories on Apple posted here every day. I'm sure there could be 3 pages worth of HN stories posted here from all of the other Japanese non-tech businesses doing the same thing if the audience here were also so obsessed with those corporations daily operations.

I'm sure this has nothing to do with Apple's culture and everything to do with people acting like normal people and helping others in times of need.

How strange then that we don't hear similar stories about other companies in Japan...

Are you serious?

We don't hear stories about other companies because humans going out of their way to help others in the wake of a natural disaster isn't something singularly unique that it requires a post to social news sites whenever it's done. The only reason we're hearing this story is because someone in love with Apple received an email about employees in an Apple store doing their civic duty and decided that this was "Apple's role" in the disaster.

Honestly, I bet people at Apple who see this are slightly embarrassed that their huge company's role in this disaster is letting people charge their iOS devices in their shop and watch tv.

(Not meant as a slight against Apple.)

Imagine if someone wrote a blog post about how he saw an American guy bringing a bottle of water to a kid who lost her way during the earthquake and decided to title it "America's role in Japan"

Nobody is denying that humans should help each other in times of crisis. But hey, enjoy your strawman karma.

However, from the descriptions of not just this source but others, stories of walking 60km home, sleeping on the floor of a crowded bar, not having anything to eat etc, it should be clear that Apple is in fact going the extra distance.

If this was any other company, you would be singing their praises from the highest rooftop. But because it is Apple, you and others for no good reason apparently see the need to try to bring them down, cast doubt on their good works etc.

Are you serious? If so, for God's sake, what is wrong with you?

You don't have to be actively campaigning against Apple and praying fervently for their downfall to make the point that what their store employees in Japan are doing now is no different from what many other store employees in Japan are also probably doing.

Shouldn't you have written 'for Job's sake'? That's the kind of sake the Japanese like to drink...

I have been a big supporter of Apple for the past 14 years. I am a big fan of their products. This has nothing to do with a prejudice against Apple. In fact it is precisely because of their innovation that we expect more from them. Allowing your staff to sleep at the office right after the earthquake is hardly "going the extra distance." Anyone who would do otherwise under the circumstances would be considered cold and heartless.

Actually, in a state of emergency like they're in, those simple acts of providing phone/device chargers, powerbars, tv/news, and free wi-fi are a huge fucking deal and not to be taken lightly. Never mind helping people figure out how to use their devices to communicate with their family.

Hell, when I'm in an airport and my phone's going down, I'm hunting for a plug, and I thought ahead enough to bring my own charger.

I can't imagine what a life saver it would be when you haven't been home for a few days and are totally unprepared for the situation you're stuck in.

Didn't mean to imply that being able to charge your devices and watch what's happening on the news isn't important. I know from experience (several different multi-day power outages) how useful those are.

Just pointing out that there are probably many stores in Japan doing the same for people in need and that this isn't really news except that it took place in an Apple store.

I have no doubt there are others doing similar things, but this is the first story of it's kind I've seen. Personally, I could care less if it was Apple, or Dell, or Hello Kitty, it's interesting (and heartwarming) to see this kind of story about people using the resources they have at hand helping others in need.

I would rather see this story with the Apple headline than not see it just because of the Apple headline.

Given I am based in Asia, I can assure you that EVERY other companies in Japan did - all wifi are open and free, vending machine goes free, stores open for sleep and food. It's just that Japanese culture do not consider it necessary to tell western media about it, or actually consider it improper to PR on it.

Looks like you need to read this other guy's comment:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2325377

That's true, but I suspect there's at least a large part of "I can do 'the right thing' and know my boss (and his boss) will back me up for doing it."

I've seen this personally on a small scale at the Genius Bar - Apple have _clearly_ explicitly given even quite junior staff the authority to "fix things", with a _big_ emphasis on "make the customer happy" outcomes. I have no doubt that there are checks and measures in place to ensure staff don't abuse that authority, but my gut feel is that the response would be "better training" first, rather than reprimanding.

And I suspect _that_ is the important bit of "Apple culture" at work here.

It's not remarkable that normal people want to help others out. It is remarkable, and admirable, when those people can quickly assume responsibility on behalf of their employer without thinking they need to get time consuming sign-off on their plans from high enough up the org chart that it's too late to help b the time it's approved.

Big congrats to Apple Store Tokyo, their staff, management, and corporate overseers. I'm sure they're not the _only_ company to have responded this way, but they _did_ repond this way, and I'm impressed.

I guess I'm kind of implying the same thing but you said it better than I did.

Apple have _clearly_ explicitly given even quite junior staff the authority to "fix things", with a _big_ emphasis on "make the customer happy" outcomes.

I've often wondered why this isn't more common. It clearly creates loyal customers and has obvious potential to lead to increased profits long-term. I can't even begin to count the number of times I've been told an employee wasn't allowed to solve my problem in a simple, cost-effective and obvious way.

This is just basic human decency and I am sure Apple is not the only company doing this. I don't think it's a good time for some guy from Silicon Valley to praise some entity from Silicon Valley for doing great things. Reminds me of Twitter getting all the praise for revolutions while people were dying. Let's praise them when they spend some of their billions on earthquake relief.

Is this materially different from how any other company in Japan reacted?

Yes, it is

Per jaysonelliot's recounting it seems at least bars, stores, and 7-11s were doing the same thing within their capabilities.

But not other large corporates, which I think is the point.

Name a large corporation with large retail presence in Japan which was not/is not helping.

Many, many companies have performed admirably: offering shelter, giving away their products/services for the duration, trying to help affected customers/employees, etc.

I'm quite a ways away from the earthquake, and have used a regional bank for the last seven years. The branch manager called me to say that he noticed my account was nearly empty and, if I or my business was affected by the earthquake, the bank had my back and we could sort out the numbers later. (Situation nominal, by the way -- I just happened to have paid taxes on Friday, which appears to be quite a hit if you only know about savings in yen.)

Another anecdote: I just got off the phone with the apartment service which ran my old apartment. I moved out on 2/10 and was told to expect my deposit to be refunded via wire transfer on 3/10. It hasn't arrived yet, so I called today to ask about it. So far, fairly routine adult-dealing-with-money stuff.

"We're very sorry -- that estimate was incorrect and, since Friday, we've been overwhelmed. The computer shows this going out tomorrow. Do you need it immediately? Come to the office or tell me your new address and our manager will drive it to you."

This is, ahem, not the level of enthusiasm with respect to return of deposits that I would have expected. My bank has treated me with unfailing honesty the last seven years and never once tried to take advantage of me. The apartment management company... my, I seem to be having a bout of peculiarly specific amnesia. Oh yeah, they were really nice today.

From the more extensive coverage here in Asia, no. Most electronic stores had their resources open for everyone and wifi has been made free in all affected areas. Japanese culture considers these gestures a necessity and provides these info to the affected areas mostly, rather than letting them out to PR outlets, so I guess most western media aren't aware of the actual situation.

Meanwhile, Microsoft donates $2million (http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2011/03/14...), and nobody notices. I don't mean "oh, poor Microsoft" - it's just interesting that certain kinds of generosity are appreciated more than others.

The part about camping out in the Apple Store reminded me of "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" by Cory Doctorow.

http://baens-universe.com/articles/when_sysadmins_ruled_the_...

Awesome comic! I absolutely loved reading it and suggest it to anyone else!

I find this bit really interesting:

"You know how in disaster movies, people on the street gather around electronic shops that have TVs in the display windows so they can stay informed with what is going on? In this digital age, that's what the Tokyo Apple stores became."

While doubtless unintentional, this sounds so much like PR as to seem tasteless.

It's good to see people helping each other. This sort of thing is happening all over Japan, though, not just at any one company. I hope that people encourage each other to do more of this sort of thing.

That said, I was impressed by Google's approach, even though they're not a Japanese company. They set up a page to give people the latest news on the disaster, made a widget to help people donate to the Japanese Red Cross, powered a person finder to help people locate their loved ones and linked people to all kinds of other official resources so that they know when they're expected to ration power, etc.

It's linked from their home page. Honestly, I didn't notice it for a long time, because I always search straight from my browser.

Sure, it's just a story of basic human decency, the kind we see in all sorts of crises.

But stories are a big way that cultural values are transmitted and reinforced. The latter is important.

Well, this is good, but Apple's bigger contribution is allowing donations via iTunes. They have over 200 million credit card numbers on file - that's powerful.

I know little of Apple or of Japanese business morals/etc.

I wonder, is this an Apple thing, or a Japanese thing, or an Apple Japan thing? Does it lean any particular way? Not that it matters. Good people doing good things. I would be interested in commentary, though.

This is totally an Apple thing. I worked Apple retail, and they tell you all the time that Apple is not in the computer business. They are in the people business. I can see this happening at any major Apple store given the extreme circumstances.

Japanese thing. It's actually happening to every corporate and stores in Japan, from our more extensive coverage here in Asia. It's just that they are too busy continuing to combat the aftermath to think about writing things down and tell the public in the middle of the disaster.

For anyone interested we formed a global group on Facebook called iHope for Japan http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_201249473238509...

The idea is to persuade Steve Jobs donate to the relief effort in Japan. The release of the iPad2 just about coincided with the earthquake/tsunami. What a great opportunity to donate a portion of each iPad2 to sale to Japan. Very positive publicity and who knows they may sell more because of it.

Tokyo's gripped with panic and the markets are essentially experiencing a flash crash (http://e.nikkei.com/e/app/fr/market/nikkeiindex.aspx) and the French Embassy is warning that radioactivity could reach Tokyo in 10 hours (https://twitter.com/#!/reuters/status/47485505813757952)

This story made me feel good.

Funny how every comments from the link are "Wow awesome APPLE is amazing", talking about the company as a whole when it's only a single store story. Yes, what this they made is great, even though it's what every other store should have made in their situation. Just felt like pointing that fun fact out.

If you are stranded, and someone gives you a place to sleep, I think I will scream in thanking them. So yes, Apple did an amazing job.

> with the phone [...] lines down

and

> hundreds of people were swarming into Apple stores to watch the news on USTREAM and contact their families via Twitter, Facebook, and email.

Why is the internet at the apple store up when apparently the phonelines are down?

Honestly everyone needs to get over themselves and their opinions on "roles" in this terrible time.

This was an inspiring story coming from a truly frightening and terrible situation.

Pretty awesome stuff!

Apple did far better then Microsoft atleast.

http://www.geekwire.com/2011/bings-japan-tweet-tasteless-mar...

Ycombinator is such a massive Apple fanboy hangout these days.

I hate being "that guy" but I find it very sad that we've reached a point where we're expected to praise companies just for being staffed by humans capable of basic empathy in an unimaginably horrific crisis.

It is nice that they did this and all but is it really especially noteworthy?

Give me an update when Steve Jobs donates a little bit of his money to the relief effort, (or, really, ANYTHING...) until then I don't really see what this has to do with Apple as a whole.

On the other hand, there's a skewed ratio of outrage to praise.

Some people like to hear about the good things from a horrific crisis. You're not expected to praise the companies. Whatever gave you that perception?

A lot of wealthy people donate anonymously so that they aren't harassed or labeled for whom they donate money to and some just don't like drawing attention to their personal lives.

And a lot more people do not donate at all (the percentage of anonymous donations to most charities is miniscule). In the absence of evidence that he has donated, the reasonable assumption is that he has not.

That's not to say I believe he is obligated to do so. But, I seriously doubt Jobs generosity...he's always been kind of a jerk, especially in matters of money. I don't understand why anyone would bring up "some people donate anonymously!" as some sort of evidence that Jobs is a giving human being, when most evidence points to the contrary.

Okay, let's look at the donations that he has to disclose by law: "while Jobs gave $254,000. (His wife Laurene Powell Jobs, however, donated more than $502,915 federally" (Source: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/01/bill_gate...).

What's more likely, that this person who intensely guards his personal life contributes only to politicians and supports no causes on his own or that he doesn't publicize anything about his personal life other than what he has to?

Everything I've read about Jobs points to him being very uncomfortable with having his life laid open for everyone to peer at and critique.

"Okay, let's look at the donations that he has to disclose by law: "while Jobs gave $254,000. (His wife Laurene Powell Jobs, however, donated more than $502,915 federally" (Source: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/01/bill_gate...)."

That is useful information, if one wanted to determine whether Jobs donates to anything. Again, I'm not suggesting he is obligated to do so. If he wants to be the one who dies with the most toys, and it appears that he does based on the amount of his charitable contributions compared to some of his peers, that's absolutely fine with me. (I think he's a dick based on the way he behaved toward Woz and early Apple employees with regard to money, and not so much based on lack of charitable giving.)

I was just pointing out that saying, "Some people donate anonymously" is not a meaningful contribution to the discussion. Which people? Is Jobs among them? How do we know that? It's a no-op statement in the context in which it was used, and I find that annoying.

Jobs declaring his donation to japan would give him a lot of free sympathy. There's really no point in not declaring a donation when you're a ceo and I highly doubt there are a lot who do so.

He mentions that his free wifi was the only way to get access to the outside world. I don't know about Softbank (the only provider with iPhones in Japan), but my 3G with Docomo was not disrupted at any point during the crisis. Making calls was difficult or (usually) impossible, but network access was always there. This is in Tokyo.

I had no problems with Softbank's 3G either.

Thats it? really? No pledge of money to help repair?

If thats all Apple does in response its extremely weak.

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