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Comment by aofstad | Hacker News Reader

Mobile technology advances much faster in Japan because it is so much easier to maintain and upgrade the infrastructure. In such a small country, it is considerably cheaper to upgrade to the newest mobile data technology. In a country the size of the US, not so cheap or easy just because of the geography.

Japan telecom companies were able to adopt 3G technologies much quicker than other places for this reason, and this technology became commonplace before it did in other countries. So mobile computing has had more time to develop and permeate their culture.

In any case, it's probably good that mobile internet in the US is developing more slowly and cautiously around the open internet instead of the carrier's content.

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The geographical size has its advantages but it is more about the culture and people. The society in Japan embraces technology (and the change and progress it usually entails) more readily than almost anywhere else, so such continuous early adoption creates the virtuous circles that continue to feed it.

If the markets in other small countries (especially those with similar economies) behaved in the same way, the demand (and money to be made) would fuel industry to do the same.

Japanese culture still seems to prize intelligence, whereas places like the US require you to hide it some of the time. It's almost like they're an entire nation of nerds.

As someone who knows a lot about Japan, I can tell you that you're partially wrong. Japanese culture prizes intelligence as much as Western culture: only in those circles that would appreciate it.

Read up on traditional Japanese saying: "The Nail that Sticks Up will be hammered down." and conformity of Japanese culture.

http://www.snorko.org/cyberwrite/eng103/students/dianec.html

I've noticed intelligence is respected but conformity is respected much, much more.

From a recent article titled "Why Apple isn't Japanese"

"One notorious case in point involves Shuji Nakamura, the brilliant scientist who invented a revolutionary energy-saving blue-diode light source only to find himself mired in years of litigation as he struggled to extract royalty payments from the company that had profited from his invention. Nakamura ultimately abandoned Japan for California. Fasol recalls asking scientists at the University of Tokyo if they considered his departure a blow. " 'No, not at all,' they told me. 'It might be good to have someone more ordinary'." "

http://www.newsweek.com/id/73236/output/print

There's a lot of conformity in the US as well. It's often harnessed by marketers.

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