• odium@programming.dev
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    10 months ago

    On the flipside, something most developed countries consider normal but would blow Japanese minds is the ability to do all “paperwork” on your phone or laptop without any paper ever being printed anywhere. Japan is somehow still a country of fax.

    • Squiddles@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      I heard Japan described as being “stuck in the year 2000 since the 1980’s”. I think South Korea fits the original question better than Japan nowadays.

      • Chozo@kbin.social
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        10 months ago

        Yeah, Japan had a massive tech boom in the 80s and 90s, but then just kinda stopped growing that field. It’s still there and still a strong industry in Japan, but the cultural tech hype isn’t there anymore, it seems.

        • doctorcrimson@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Part of the reason for the original enthusiasm is that they were enamored by the country’s recovery post-WWII when they managed to barely obtain permissions from transistor patent holders to manufacture in Japan which led to creation of many of the first consumer transistor radio brands among other electronics manufacturing.

          They were the cheap electronics labour market before China, as China wouldn’t see notable economic improvement until after the 80s.

      • Potatisen@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I think Shanghai/China fits it even better. The convenience and technological advances are moving crazy fast.

        • doctorcrimson@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Meh. They’re head to head for most fields, only thing I can think of that they’ve made noteworthy advances in would be superheated coal burning efficiency to squeeze out more power and at the same time capture more emissions than any comparative western facility. China as a whole has some of the lowest per capita emissions of any nation, though their numbers might not be as accurate for several reasons.

          Even their rocketry is kind of pathetic, I think India might even have the edge over them on that front.

      • ferralcat@monyet.cc
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        10 months ago

        I’ve heard it’s just more of a burocracy thing. A friend there once told me he always puts the date wrong on the top of documents because there is a person who’s job is to double check your work. They’re judged on how often they find mistakes, so it’s easier to put something blatantly wrong at the top that easily fixed so they can quickly find it and he can move on.

    • tiredofsametab@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      We are getting more and more stuff, but they often have a really shit UX. We can do some stuff on PC since the “My Number” card system, but that also requires installing all kinds of software, only works in certain browsers, etc.

    • RainfallSonata@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      You can fax at your local public library. It was only about six months ago that my state’s social services dept. stopped requiring faxes.