Some of the stuff that comes up on this website just kills me some days. Every time a story comes up about Japan, and why something isn't selling there, a bunch of posters go on about what a bunch of xenophobic dicks Japanese are and how no western companies can do well there.
To those people: You obviously don't live here, and you should consider the merits of spouting off on things with which you have no direct experience.
I live in Tokyo. I've been here for about 6 years and have worked helping to restructure a well-known Japanese company.
So, on to some random points:
1) Do Japanese have a water-tight sense of national identity?
Yes.
But they are not the only ones with nationalistic issues. See also "We're #1 motherfuckers" in the US and the vague but pervasive smugness of Europeans.
2) Are some Japanese people arrogant, screaming racists?
Yes.
And like there aren't arrogant and screaming racists in the US or Europe... No siree...
This is often thought to be more widespread than it is, partly because foreigners are not always welcome in a number of establishments in Japan. In some cases this is indeed because they are racist.
This is way more often the case because Japanese are not good culturally with dealing with the unfamiliar or strangers, even other Japanese. Letting the foreigner in who doesn't know the right way to behave and will freak out all the patrons is not good business.
They are not totally unjustified in thinking that foreigners will not behave themselves, given the massive number of westerners who come here and act like total dicks, in the same way people are known to act like total dicks when visiting the Amish. I don't know how many times I have had to cringe when reading the news or standing on the train because of the obnoxious behaviour of other gaijin.
All that said, I've seen a little old Japanese guy body-check my friend, for no other apparent reason than he was a Gaijin.
3) Are domestic Japanese businesses insular and hard to do business with?
Yes.
Domestic Japanese companies tend to cluster together in groups, solidified with cross shareholdings. It's often times difficult for Japanese companies to work with other Japanese companies, so don't feel so picked on.
Granted things were waaaaaay worse in the 80's. They used to rebuff ski equipment makes with bullshit excuses like, and I'm not kidding, "Japanese snow is different". It seems that Japan has collectively grown up a little since then.
4) Japanese hate foreign brands. They only want to buy Japanese things.
No.
Here are a list of things that are insanely popular in Japan:
- Starbucks
- Louis Vuitton
- Virtually any European fashion brand
- Krispy Kreme (2 hours lineups just to get one)
- iPod
- McDonalds (there is a word for meeting there)
- Apple products (amongst designers)
- Hollywood movies
- Microsoft software
- Dell hardware
- Cisco routers
- etc etc etc
Do I really need to say anything more?
5) The XBox 360 failed in Japan because of X.
No.
Unless X happens to be the fact that MS massively screwed up the launch in Japan by not having a single game Japanese people wanted to play in the initial line-up. JRPGs, fighting games and simulators of all kinds. That's what they like.
In Microsoft's defence, they have done their best to recover like champs. They obviously went right out and commissioned a bunched of JRPGs, which have all hit in the last 6 months, taking XBox 360 to the top of the hardware charts three times, including this week.
6) Japanese don't buy the iPhone because their phones are super wicked.
Yes and No.
Japanese phones have been waaaaaay ahead for a long time. The phones in the US, until the iPhone and Android have been pretty much a total joke.
That said, the iPhone makes for a nice piece of kit, and is definitely sexier than the Japanese models. But it's not the OMGWTF mega-bomb that it was in the US, because the disparity between what is already on offer and the iPhone is not that great.
Also, there are some serious functionality issues that prevent a lot of Japanese people from buying them.
I have heard widespread dissatisfaction with the Japanese character support in general and the mail applet in particular. How well do you suppose the iPhone would have sold if it was super great in Arabic, but had some interface and input problems with Roman characters? You know, like it took a long time to send a mail, and it didn't always work right. Or that you couldn't use most of the apps in the store, because they weren't localized.
Many Japanese people suffer through long commutes. It is totally common to talk to people who travel 2 hours *each way* to get to work. When you're holding on to a safety strap for that long, one handed menus start to make a lot of sense. And so do 3" televisions.
And some of the other features are "killer apps" as well. I do not have an iPhone for one basic reason. It does not support Osaifu Keitai (Wallet Phone). I use electronic cash extensively and wouldn't want to be without it. If a phone doesn't have it, I won't buy it. I am not saying that should be important to everyone, merely that many other people will have a similar need or attachment to one feature or another.
Given the fact that a) the iPhone has some shortcomings, b) is not soooo amazing compared to existing phones, and c) lacks some common and important features, is it really so surprising that it's not selling like gang-busters?
7) Japanese people don't understand sarcasm. At all. Really.
Yeah, pretty much.
And Koreans too. It just doesn't exist out here, which is kinda weird. I always explain it this way, "Japanese take you seriously and get confused. Koreans take you seriously and get angry."
8) Internet totally rocks in Japan.
Yes.
I have 100M for $50/month and I plan to upgrade to 1G when I move into my new place. Let's just say I download knoppix CDs in 8 minutes. Let's hear it for 5000+ kbytes/sec!
9) IT in Japan is also advanced.
No.
Japanese IT is horribly backwards. The entire country seems to store all it's data in Excel spreadsheets. It is not uncommon for a company to have 3 or 4 ERP systems. Japanese IT departments have no political power at all, and can't even do things like mandate the use of a single database server. This is not wholly unrelated to the ERP problem.
The calibre of all the Japanese technical people I have met is uniformally abysmal. Anyone who knows anything must be locked in a room at NTT somewhere. I'm not saying they aren't out there, just that they are very rare.
10) Are there other odd/interesting things about Japan?
Yes. Many.
A quick sampling:
- It's not uncommon for people to fall asleep in business meetings
- Peeing on the street is ok if you are drunk
- People take their shoes off before they throw themselves under trains
- If this happens and you are on the train, the station master will give you a note to give your boss so you don't get in trouble
- It is rude to eat while walking down the street (unless it's ice cream)
- The boxer in Street Fighter II is actually named M. Bison which makes sense if you think about it
- There is a Maid Optometrist
- There is a cosplay bar themes after the BSD operating system
- Pudding in a can
