Why Apple Isn’t Japanese
That’s the title of a Newsweek article that explores why Japan is not more of a powerhouse on the world technological stage.
Japan is a technological powerhouse. If you exult in brilliantly bizarre gadgetry, engineering wonkery and prodigious feats of craftsmanship, you’ll feel right at home. It’s also an extremely sophisticated business environment. The Japanese domestic market is big and nuanced; Japanese consumers are notoriously finicky and demanding.
On the face of things, it would all seem to add up to an entrepreneurial paradise, a playground of creativity and innovation. Japan spent $130 billion on research and development last year (more as a percentage of GDP than the United States or the EU, putting it in third place globally behind Sweden and Finland). It registers, far and away, more patents than any other country—even more than the United States, with more than twice the population.
So you’d think Japan would be confident about its technological future, but you’d be wrong. These days, big business, academia, think tanks, government and the media, as well as the average Japanese salaryman, are all brooding about the state of their economy in the digital era. The educational system is going down the tubes, it’s said, generating math and science scores that increasingly lag behind other OECD countries. The government is gridlocked, stalling urgently needed economic reform. Managers are mired in old mentalities, while imaginative newcomers can’t find the space or the capital to develop their ideas. It’s a syndrome that’s sometimes summed up in a single, angst-ridden question: how come we weren’t the ones who invented the iPod?
Poor Mari….she’s my favorite. If I ever become a j-pop singer and part of the...
Shes definitely at the top of my hot list.
perfeckt 10:10
as someone who has done technical support for apple, i have to say that the ipod is hardly a prodigious feat of engineering or even that impressive of a piece of technology. it is basically just a hard drive (or in the case of the nano solid state) with a basic partition for a simple OS that can store and play a very limited amount of specifically formatted music and videos. the entire success of the ipod is based on apples superior marketing of the product, not that it is some marvel of computer technology to be awked at by anybody. ill give apple this though, their recent touch screen innovations on the ipod touch are both visual and textile candy.
if you want a media player with more usable formats and a more intuitive computer/device interface, creative labs zen is probably a better product. they, unfortunately don’t have the marketing machine of apple.
long story short, nobody beats american marketers at their game and japan cant invent everything.
as for japan, i think that this concern is part of a larger national pessimism that seems to be shown on japundit. they have an aging populace, their economic growth while positive isn’t really strong at all (2.7 annualized rate compared to US growth rate of 4.9), and financial obligations that are prodigious, in addition to being the emo kid of the industrialized nations.
that being said their education seems fine by international standards, their tech sector is both profitable and subsidized, managers of all nations are mired in intransigent rules and lack of creativity (you want creativity? get an early entrepreneur), and last of all i doubt that in a country were so many patents are filed that people are having a hard time gaining funding for their ideas.
it sounds like one of those made up problems governments and intelligensia use to distract people from real issues.
December 4th, 2007 at 1:48 amOK. My intuitiveness is perking up (which means there’s a 50/50 chance I’m wrong). But… shouldn’t real technological gains be based more on new technologies and industries than patents?
I mean, you can take one technology or one product type and just fine tune the crap out of it… but it’s still only one technology or one product type.
December 4th, 2007 at 6:00 amesotericlarity
Interesting points. A friend of mine bought a HD mp3 player years ago – it was essentially an iPod but cheaper. Why hadn’t anyone heard of that model? Because it wasn’t Apple and as you say, Apple has a great marketing programme. You’d think only they make the things.
Japan has some excellent creativity. I’ve came across a game called “Okami” for the PS2 which although I haven’t played (just seen it on youtube and read reviews) looks great and has been very well received. There’s no way any US firm could have made a game like that – it’s always about shooting people with guns.
December 4th, 2007 at 5:03 pm“it’s always about shooting people with guns.”
Unfortunately, it’s not limited to games.
December 5th, 2007 at 12:29 am“The educational system is going down the tubes, it’s said, generating math and science scores that increasingly lag behind other OECD countries.”
This argument is ridiculous.
December 5th, 2007 at 12:33 amWhat will prevent Sony from hiring Chinese scientists in the future?
I was thinking, too, about the Apple – Japan analogy. Wasn’t it about 25 years ago that Sony completely cornered the portable tape machine (see? I don’t even know what to call it except a Walkman). I bet Apple took some cues from that product
I remember a friend of mine came back from vacation with his parents about the start of the Walkman taking over the world. He showed me a portable tape player he picked up at the airport duty free somewhere in the Carribbean.
It was compact, nicely designed, rugged. It had the ability to record, too, and alter the pitch. And it was about $40 at the time. A Japanese company made it. Terrific little machine that lasted a long time… .
But it wasn’t a Sony, it wasn’t wacky plastic colours and it was half the price (at least) of the Walkman. And people didn’t buy it in droves – they bought the Walman.
I never saw anything that good or that cheap from Sony until after the brand was dying out anyway because of the advent of the mp3 player.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:32 am“The educational system is going down the tubes, it’s said, generating math and science scores that increasingly lag behind other OECD countries.”
That is complete bullshit. According to recent OECD ratings, Japan is in their top 10 rating “above average” out of about 56 countries – the US is rated “below average”.
Clearly this newsweek article was written by someone who doesn’t actually know what they’re talking about – probably got their info from Wikipedia.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:50 amWhen I said [top 10 rating "above average"] I meant that they are in the top ten of the table, fitting into the highest rated group which is “above average”.
Forgot the brackets.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:52 amI also think it comes down the West’s hoary chestnut – the stereotypical Japanese school phenomenon of learning a lot of facts and figures and not necessarily developing a group of students who can critically think about concepts.
Not that I’ve ever been too impressed with the North American system’s ability to pump out critical thinkers unless you have a school system that *really* understands how to create students who can think on their feet… .
December 5th, 2007 at 6:12 am“Unfortunately, it’s not limited to games.”
Cram it, vittel. There’s nothing wrong with the fact that people can legally defend themselves in the US with something that actually works. It’s limp-wristed nations like Japan and the UK that have a lot to learn regarding that.
December 7th, 2007 at 5:48 pm