Comment by srvmshr | Hacker News Reader

Comment by srvmshr | Hacker News Reader

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I am a Japan resident.

Except the Suica card featuring a notch (for helping as tactile aid to less-abled), I can assure you none of these are in widespread use (i.e. absolutely commonplace). For a fact, I am seeing some of these for the first time with a sense of "Wow, this is in Japan?"

The ones which are sometimes encountered are the Braille on top of cans (Beers mostly. Not colas. The article missed elevator buttons & directions - they always have braille), and the toilet pink-noise. Calculator and coffee holders depends on the banks. JP & 7-11 ATM don't seem to have it. Wrapping paper in chewing gum boxes only - not the sticks. There are equally numerous or more such novelties seen in China, so I believe its not something extraordinary.

I wish HN (and Reddit) stopped romanticizing Japan. This is a well functioning society, people are courteous & law is followed to the letter - but we are in no way living in utopia. These are some niche inventions & gadgetry. Rather, the concern is Japan is falling behind in regular technological advances since the past decade (at least)

Edit: some details, fixed typo

Been to Japan a lot before COVID, can confirm.

Most notably, they were very far behind on electronic banking and paperless processes.

Getting a Shinkansen travel pass as a tourist is a solid hour of paperwork. With pages and pages of dead trees. And stamps! It was crazy to see that in 2019 in such a highly developed country.

My impression (as an outsider) is that these paper-pushing jobs are allowed to persist to keep people employed who would otherwise have nothing to do.

> My impression (as an outsider) is that these paper-pushing jobs are allowed to persist to keep people employed who would otherwise have nothing to do.

It is more of bureaucratic inertia, extreme risk-averse mindset & accommodating the older non tech savvy generation by keeping things as consistent.

For a fact, I saw a shop still having LaserDiscs. I was not born when those things were in fashion.

Secondhand stores in Tokyo are definitely better for old tech. I suppose in the US, either collectors keep it in their bigger houses, or else everything gets damaged in transit or isn’t worth selling long distance.

In Tokyo you can sell it back when you’re done, and that’s easier than trying to keep it in your apartment.

I am also a Japan resident and I had to roll my eyes at the headline. Yes, there are some cool things like these in Japan, but as you say they are not widespread, and there are plenty more examples of terrible UX, especially on the web. Not to mention all the businesses still stuck in the land of fax machines, IE6, and mountains of non-digitized paperwork. Many public and private systems and policies are extremely inefficient or completely nonsensical, simply because conservatism is prized over innovation.

I've only visited Japan once (I'm American), and as someone who had never been, I definitely saw a lot of things that seemed magical and I can understand the tendency to romanticize it.

Funny enough, I've been planning another trip (that was supposed to be for my daughters high school graduation, but COVID changed that)and spent a lot of time watching videos to get ideas and learn a bit of the language and culture, and some of the English speaking Japan based YouTubers opened my eyes to a lot of the areas where Japan definitely isn't magical.

It's been good to get some balance! I'm still excited to visit when we finally can.

Can you recommend some channels?

Abroad in Japan. He’s really popular, but I find him pretty balanced.

That Japanese Guy Yuta. Some find him annoying, but I like it. He covers a lot of controversial subjects. I’ve actually purchased his language learning and it’s been really good.

I've definitely seen calculators at UFJ ATMs.

There are all-in-one sinks at one of the cinemas around where I live, they're the absolute worst, because it's frequent that you trigger the soap dispenser or the water while you're drying your hands.

ISTR braille on cans is also in other countries.

"What you see is what you get" is commonplace at Mos Burger, and is actually not that great, because it's a mess to eat, unfortunately...

I think it’s fallen off a little, but it’s common for shop cashiers to calculate how much you owe on an actual calculator and just show the screen to you. In a way this is surprisingly practical, but I think the assumption is that elderly customers don’t trust cash registers and want to see the workers actually adding up some numbers.

Also, the real lesson from the food pic is that Starbucks Japan has way better limited drinks. And the real mystery is why Starbucks US had app ordering and a point card for years before Japan did.

I agree as well. I guess it has more to do with where in Japan you are. Braille seems to be on cans but then again most of the stuff in cans tends to be alcoholic (beer, wine coolers, non-alcoholic beer, whisky/gin premixes).

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