Comment by corin_ | Hacker News Reader

Comment by corin_ | Hacker News Reader

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Those aren't necessarily examples of Western companies displaying "aggressive levels of cultural ignorance", just examples that they've not penetrated the Japanese market (which I don't disagree, can be caused by cultural ignorance).

The last game I worked on getting publishing deals for, you could easily look at it and say "hah, cultural ignorance".

But we rejected deals with publishers who wanted to just give us some cash and then start promoting the game in various Asian countries with no changes, because we understood that changes were needed and that unless we, in Europe, hired people who knew exactly what to change we needed a publisher who would dictate the changes.

In the meantime... the cost of adding Japanese language to the game and not blocking Japanese buyers on Steam was minimal, far less than money made from a fairly small number of Japanese gamers buying it despite not being adapted at all. We just didn't have the business case for doing a proper Japanese version with a big push to get users there.

True! I would still argue that, in many cases, SV companies actively resist understanding the local culture -- Uber and AirBnB fit into that category.

AirBnB fixed this -- after something like four years -- and Uber would be dead here without COVID buoying up UberEats. They (Uber) could have had a killer offering, had they built-or-bought relationships with taxi companies, because ride-sharing here is a total non-starter.

Gap does not make products for the local market. I used to buy jeans there because they sold exactly the same products in the same fit as in the US, and Americans are... larger.

And it's not like there's a shortage of people that can look at your product and say, "Nope, won't use it, here's why. Watch how I solve this problem right now..."

Socializing in Japan works very differently than in the US.

Meetup and Facebook would have had to introduce almost totally alien products to succeed here, so I think they were kind of doomed from the get-go -- although Instagram was an outscale hit here.

This problem works both ways, of course.

Uniqlo, as of the last time I checked, also doesn't re-size for the US market. But Americans come in more shapes and sizes, so they've still got a market.

As an aside, if I go to Uniqlo and try on the largest size dress shirt they sell, it fits beautifully around my waist and stomach, but the chest and arms look and feel as if painted on. Afterwards, it'll take a full fire crew and a gallon of baby oil to get me out of the damn thing.

FWIW, Uniqlo does indeed resize for the North American market; a large on Asia is not the same as a large in America. At least, that was the case for some of the items I've encountered.

Interesting! That's changed in the past three years, then, but I'm glad to hear it.

Thanks for the extra examples!

I know far too little to judge around Japanese culture myself, so interesting to read :)

Nah, you have a valid point. :)

Sometimes companies just don't invest to expand into the market, or they aren't there yet -- it's not always just ignorance of the culture.

But I've seen the latter a lot, and particularly with SF people, that move here because they "love Japanese culture", and then complain endlessly about how Japan isn't SF. They don't last more than a few years, typically.

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