Repeating what I commented on the post itself, but this is a really interesting observation.

I can confirm from limited experience that this is happening. But the problem is that “giving Japanese programmers good frameworks and libraries” is not as easy as just handing them a package and being done with it. The pace of modern frameworks like Rails etc. is so fast that there is a big learning curve just getting used to staying in the loop.

We lost at least a week on a project I’m working on catching up when Rails 3.1 hit, because all these useful things (asset pipeline, etc.) require effort to tie into existing practices. Imagine the Japanese developer with limited English skill, trying to navigate the discussion threads like this one ( https://github.com/chriseppstein/compass/issues/337 ) (just as an example). It’s a lot of work.

So I think what happens is that, although re-inventing the wheel is a hell of a job, at least it means that the basic groundwork is constant and designed internally, whereas using frameworks means that you’re building on someone else’s work — usually non-Japanese, so not well documented in Japanese.