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Comment by brink | Hacker News Reader

I think this is a symptom of Japan being more focused on enjoying life and it's aesthetics than incessantly "innovating". I'm American, I love America, but I think America gets this wrong. We're obsessed with speed and progressing with diminishing returns. When was the last time we as a country focused on being happy and enjoying what little life we have - finding joy in the little things like fax machines, rather than the wasteful pursuit of always being on top?

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I find it funny that this is the assumption for Japan. But if we were talking about how people in the US still use checks (as do other countries), then it's because Americans are dysfunctional and behind the times.

Just keep in mind that behind the times != dysfunctional

I think behind the times == dysfunctional otherwise there would never be a reason to innovate in the first place.

What joy is there to be had in a fax machine? I think you’re confusing that for nostalgia.

I think the salarymen would probably disagree with you on "enjoying life".

This.

Japanese corporate culture is abominable. Korean corporate culture is almost as bad. I can’t speak for the rest of East Asia.

I find this to be an incorrect assumption.

American society is ossified in many respect while still allowing some innovation, especially if it's on the frontier.

The problem is that we don't want to create new 'frontier' after having already occupied them, preferring that we pull up the ladders on anyone young or disadvantaged at the expense of all of us, leaving if not trillions, billions of dollars on the table.

I was going to post something very similar. Japans relationship with technology feels quite different to me. It seems like if you look at any particular example, you'll see it was advanced until it was simple, reliable, and cheap and then slowed. There isn't a western obsession to relentlessly "upgrade", it's only done when needed.

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