Disrupting Japan: The Forgotten Mistake that Killed Japan’s Software Industry

3 comments

1. Interesting take, and nice podcast I added it to my roster.

   Another factor which comes into play in my mind: Japanese mentality doesn’t allow for the “good enough” philosophy which got us through so much of the software development of the past 20 years. Distributed, non-dedicated hardware made a big difference sure but if you look at what Sony Ericcson did with Erlang, for example, especially with the emphasis on fault tolerance it seems like the average Japanese software developer could have thrived taking a different approach than the rest of the western world.

   Additionally, you look at things being pushed in Japan today with crypto, NFTs and other things, and it’s possible that Japan experiences an upswing in the next decade. I know all the negative factors, but looking at some of the positive ones with the government investing in startups, I have some positive feelings.

2. Does a pretty good job overall of explicating Japan Inc.’s software woes, though the ending veers into less interesting territory for me. Basically, I put more importance on getting The People up to speed with technology that already exists than on developing boundary pushing software engineers, but I don’t disagree with the latter either.

3. Of course it’s a nice accurate picture of what happened, I think it’s missing a more realistic viewpoint. Japanese people generally have a lower standard of computer competency. Is there internet in every house? My mom is over 60, in the US and basically has used a computer daily for work. Blockbuster went out of fashion long ago, but Tsutaya is still going strong in Japan. Craigslist? Hell no, we need a company like Mercari to gouge us in fees.

   Computers in Japan are insanely expensive and for no good reason. In the US $400 bucks, same specs in Japan, 14 Man (like $1300).