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Is it a feature of the culture, or a pragmatic concession to economic stagnation and aging infrastructure?

Ok I'm being a smartass. I actually love Japan and think they're superior in the majority of ways.

A good question. Very generally speaking; Japan’s culture is one of preservation and conservatism. If it ain’t broken don’t fix it. The states has a culture of everything can be reinvented , continual rebirth, freedom to do anything.

Here’s a little drawing of how I see it - Japan’s innovation happens huge and abrupt step changes, but then doesn’t change for possibly decades until they are forced to change again. US on the other hand has a lot tendency to be less discrete and almost continuous with its change so it’s never not changing.

Also you might notice that there’s moments when Japan skips ahead in progress. An example of this is iMode in Japan, it was mobile internet available in the 2000s way before mobile phones existed in the us that were internet capable 

However since there was no subsequent innovation after, they got leapfrogged and was one of the last large economics countries to adopt the iPhone and even then Masa Son and SoftBank (which was originally a mobile carrier btw) really turned into a thing

I remember how quickly much of Africa adopted mobile Internet technologies simply because they didn’t have landlines or computers. They were banking via text and everything.

Believer, husband, dad, optimist // Possibilities into opportunities // Design & strategy // Expert dabbler // tylerhilker.com

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yeah, and it's still around. it's probably been one of the biggest economic unlocks ever on this continent too.