Comment by indoordin0saur | Hacker News Reader

Comment by indoordin0saur | Hacker News Reader

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I'll try and add something positive: Hokkaido seems like a great place to relocate and start a life for young aspiring workers. Homes are larger and quality of life has some advantages over the more densely populated parts of Japan. It's also very unique in terms of climate and geography: very heavy snows and mountains means there's limitless adventure for skiers and snowboarders. Yet, despite the snowy winters the winter isn't as brutally cold as you might think and its not so long as what you see in a place like Canada. Spring comes quickly and the summers are long, warm and pleasant so there's plenty of time to take advantage of the beaches and beautiful forests. And about those forests, one other unique thing about Hokkaido is that it's the only place in the world that can rival (or exceed) New England in terms of its brilliance of fall colors.

Anyways, just seems like a great place for Japanese workers to relocate and start a family. I guess the only thing missing were the jobs so hopefully these chip fabs fix that.

> Hokkaido seems like a great place to relocate and start a life for young aspiring workers.

I taught English in Tokachi (Obihiro, Makubetsu-cho, Satsunai, Ikeda) a few decades ago and it was absolutely a dream.

It's pristine farmland and country filled with crystal clear rivers and surrounded on all sides by snowcapped mountains. Fields that stretch forever. Hot springs. The freshest food. Fishing. Low cost of living.

You could look up at night and not only see all the stars, but watch dozens of meteors by the minute during showers.

Just Google for photos of Tokachi. It's gorgeous.

Everything is so relaxed, it's almost the complete opposite of Tokyo. It's very easy to meet friends. People work hard, but they take time to enjoy life and nature.

There are matsuri (festivals) almost twice a month. There are carts with whistles that beckon you to buy hot yellow sweet potatoes. There are fireworks and bonfires and sports and hiking and climbing. You can make an hour long trip to the ocean and see black pebble beaches that look like an alien world.

There are more parks than you can imagine. A park on every block. And some of them are huge and feature giant art installations you can climb on. 500-ft working clocks, rolling hills of recycled rubber you can bounce on, tall dinosaurs you can climb. And don't let that lead you to believe there aren't an incredible amount of plants and flora. It's an ecological paradise and was without question the inspiration for Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke.

Everyone is so friendly. The store owners know you by name and call to you. The children all want to get their photo taken with a white guy. They're adorable and they want to talk English to you. The old ladies will smile and wave.

One time I was at a lake nestled in the mountains, and a guy in his late 40's or early 50's overheard that I lamented not having a camera (pre-smartphone era). He not only spent an hour taking pictures, portraits, etc. for me with his Nikon, but he printed them and sent them to me with a postcard.

The teachers at Kohryo High School (which was sadly shut down) even gave me lucky money.

Hokkaido is a magical place.

Your description makes me wonder how Southern Sachalin would look like today if it didn't fall to the Soviets in 1945.

I really find it disappointing that Sakhalin didn't end up under the control of Japan as it's a natural extension of the archipelago and I feel like the Japanese could have done some cool things with it.

This is some good copy. I feel like you're selling me a timeshare or something.

I was in Hokkaido many years ago for work and loved it. Compared to the rest of Japan, indoor/outdoor spaces are wider, food is better, and people are friendlier. I never could swing another work visit, so I dream about spending time there in retirement.

I could imagine, though, that companies might have trouble attracting quality talent to Hokkaido, because people see more opportunities in the big cities down south. I suppose it's like if you were trying to build a tech hub in Montana.

It's not landlocked and less isolated than Montana. Montana is beautiful in select parts but it's also a little bleak. Hokkaido is still a lush island and Sapporo is a proper city. I'd say it's more like getting companies to move from SF or LA to Seattle.

The same could probably be said of many areas of the US (or other countries). Good outdoor recreation opportunities, some good local food options, but not a huge number of (local) employment opportunities or the nearby options that density brings.

As you say, if you can work remotely, it may be fine but it's a different situation from working in a hub of whatever your specialty is.

> As you say, if you can work remotely, it may be fine but it's a different situation from working in a hub of whatever your specialty is.

The question is: is that actually a problem with Japanese work culture? That would be a large problem in US work culture because there's no loyalty from your employer, so you have to be prepared to find a new job at any moment. But it certainly used to be the case that if you worked for BigCorp, you could reasonably expect to work there for the rest of your life if you wanted. And under those conditions, it doesn't matter if the area is a hub for your job specialty.

I know Japan at least used to have a work culture where companies would be loyal to their employees, based on patio11's excellent blog post on how Japanese business culture differs from that of the US. But that was many years ago now, so I don't know if the culture in Japan is still like that or if it has changed.

Well, many of those BigCorps simply went out of business over the years. Kodak in Rochester was a pretty good bet until it wasn't. Not so much culture as business realities.

Japan has been more stable in that regard. More stability but probably also fewer real opportunities.

The successor to Kodak is Eastman chemicals which is doing quite well.

Kodak actually spun out their chemical company quite a while before things really went south with film. The real problem was that Kodak had a huge film-related consumables business and, to a first approximation, that just went away.

If you're a talent manager in AI space and looking for an engineer (EU) to relocate to Hokkaido, kindly contact me.

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