[w1ntermute]

>　my manager needed to invite a salesman out to drinks for us to procure a license of MS Office at my old day job

Do you see the Japanese recognizing/fixing the massive inefficiencies in how they do business any time soon? The Japanese economy's been down in the dumps for the last 20+ years, and these sorts of things can't be helping. Peter Drucker must be turning in his grave (he would be positively spinning if he saw もしドラ).

When I see things like faxes still being prevalent because "my feelings and passion come across better"[0], I wonder if the Japanese are really interested in staying relevant in a global economy. I mean, come on, 59 percent[1] of homes still have faxes? How did these people miss the digital revolution?

0: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19045837

1: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-japan-fa...

[cdavid]

Funnily enough, Drucker is quite fashionable in Japan ATM (or more exactly was when I was still in Japan 2 years ago): http://www.economist.com/node/16481583

While a lot of those practices are clearly inefficient, let's not forget that they have their plus as well. It is sometimes madening to see consensus building in Japanese meeting, but people are less likely to be blinded by their limited understanding as well. I can't find the reference, but a former colleague of mine knew of some research that showed how Japanese were more likely to know the actual decisions being taken after a meeting compared to their European/American counterparts.

Also, caring about the content of the emails or doing faxes means you are not as likely to answer them with a two letter words, which is just being efficient at doing useless things I suspect the fax thing itself to be more of an artefact of the average age of people in charge in Japan: my gf parents had a fax, but nobody I knew in my own generation in Japan had one. There is also most likely an early adoption paradox.

In the end, Japanese economic woes are mostly demographic I am afraid (GDP growth per capita is closer to the US than most people think), and inefficiencies should be considered with that in mind.

[w1ntermute]

>　Funnily enough, Drucker is quite fashionable in Japan ATM

Yeah, that's why I mentioned him and said he'd be spinning in his grave if he saw もしドラ, because it's a quintessentially Japanese situation - everyone's buying this book that discusses grand ideas and talking about it with one another, but no one's actually applying any of those ideas to real life.

[justin66]

> Do you see the Japanese recognizing/fixing the massive inefficiencies in how they do business any time soon? The Japanese economy's been down in the dumps for the last 20+ years, and these sorts of things can't be helping.

A lot of those inefficiencies exist for the purpose of maintaining the employment rate. They succeed at that.

[w1ntermute]

Come on, I think everyone here can agree that refusing to accept the broken window fallacy is not a sustainable economic model.

[justin66]

I don't believe the broken window fallacy has anything to do with this. Their system, since the massive mid-eighties crash, has deliberately focused more on maintaining employment than on growth. They have been demonstrably successful by that measurement. It's not the system I would design, but still.

Much like the faxes you were making fun of, it's a question of differing priorities.

[w1ntermute]

> They have been demonstrably successful by that measurement.

That's debatable. They were able to coast on their post-war success for a while, but things certainly aren't looking up in Japan. High levels of youth unemployment and dissatisfaction has led to astonishing levels of apathy. South Korea is expected to surpass Japan in terms of GDP PPP per capita within the next year, and Taiwan already has.

Japanese advantages in consumer electronics have been largely eroded by more nimble South Korean and Taiwanese rivals, and there are no signs of the Japanese fighting back in an effective manner. A great example of this is the smartphone - a quintessential consumer electronics product market in which the Japanese are nowhere to be found. Sony is flailing around a little with its Xperia phones, but they don't even register on the global level. Samsung and HTC have all the attention, and mainland Chinese competitors, like Huawei and ZTE, are starting to enter the market as well. There were some signs of success in the HDTV industry, but again, rivals like Vizio and Samsung have taken over a large portion of the market.

One of Japan's last remaining strengths in consumer electronics is the camera - companies like Canon and Nikon still reign supreme. But how long will that last? Samsung is continuing its relentless march into the future with the Galaxy Camera, a point-and-shoot which runs a full copy of Jelly Bean with wifi and 3G capabilities. Unless the Japanese firms start changing their ways, they're going to become also-rans (if they haven't already).

Give it time, and I bet Korean car makers like Hyundai and Kia will displace Toyota/Honda as well. The so-called "monozukuri" culture of Japan has turned out to be nothing more than a farce.

[justin66]

I'm not as skeptical, but there's no doubt the South Koreans and Taiwanese are ridiculously fierce competitors. On the other hand, however alarmed you are at the inefficiencies the Japanese take on because of their cultural priorities and quirks or their demographic crunch, there's no denying that SK and Taiwan have some big potential and actual issues.

I feel like I'd be going beyond my expertise to comment heavily on this but I'm pretty certain all three countries are going to look rather different twenty years from now. Makes predictions hard.