Japan is dead.

[AL the Inconspicuous]

From Slashdot -- iPhone Has 46% of Japanese Smartphone Market --

Despite claims earlier in the year that the iPhone was hated by Japanese consumers (later disproved), the iPhone has been doing well in the land of the rising sun and the evidence is in. Apple has taken 46% of the Japanese smartphone market, cutting in half the once 27% market share of the previous lead, Advance Sharp W-Zero3 (Japanese site). The article includes a large chart of the market share of Japanese smartphones over the last 3 years.

How you like them apples, Ibuka-san? 

[TimeLady Victorious]

This article may apply here...

http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/play/decade-anime-682165

2005: Just as foreign audiences are warming up to the idea that animated fare isn't just for kids, Japan's anime industry throws them a curve ball. The success of the novel and television series "Densha Otoko" -- an alleged "true story" about an otaku who gets up the nerve to ask out a "normal" woman he encounters on the train during his daily commute -- legitimizes and empowers the local otaku community. This in turn leads to more and more animated series aimed squarely at their demographic.

Because said demographic consists almost entirely of eternally single, socially awkward men, their tastes tend towards wish-fulfillment fantasy plots starring beautiful young lolitas -- who are willing to hang out with eternally single, socially awkward men. This fetishization of girlish naiveté and innocence is known as "moé," and it will dictate the industry's path for the remainder of the decade. Critics, however, believe that the development will potentially hamper Japan's ability to export anime, as the moé concept comes across as utterly creepy to most foreign audiences.

2009: The types of anime shows popular among Japanese and foreign fans continues to diverge. The most buzz-worthy domestic fare are super-niche moé and lolicon shows brimming with inside jokes and anime stereotypes that few other than dyed-in-the-wool otaku can decipher. In Japan, a poll conducted by the otaku matchmaking service Otakuma reveals that four out of five of the top shows watched by female anime fans are about giant robots, while four out of five of the top shows watched by male anime fans are about little girls.

[AL the Inconspicuous]

From Slashdot -- Living In Tokyo's Capsule Hotels --

Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510 once offered a night's refuge to salarymen who had missed the last train home.  Now with Japan enduring its worst recession since World War II, it is becoming an affordable option for people with nowhere else to go.  The Hotel 510’s capsules are only 6 1/2 feet long by 5 feet wide.  Guests must keep possessions, like shirts and shaving cream, in lockers outside of the capsules.  Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas says,  "It’s just a place to crawl into and sleep.  You get used to it."

I'm a big fan of small living quarters: one room + bathroom is all I really need, which means I can do just fine in a log cabin (as long as there's electricity and Internet), a trailer / RV, or wherever else my tax resistance adventure may take me.  When I just started Gulching I've spent several months living in motels like Studio 6 and then a tax-free flea-bag motel where I had an arrangement with the owner, but that's no way for a civilized human being to live.  Those Japanese man-cells are the worst - no privacy whatsoever, and they're probably taxed and regulated to death as well!

[tranced]

Kinda reminds me of the kennels at the veterinarian.

[The ghost of a ghost of a ghost]

I get terror chills running up and down my spine thinking of staying in such a claustrophobia inducing casket.

[AL the Inconspicuous]

This thread is for pissing down on Japan, but the things you won't find me criticizing are the apolitical aspects of their culture (though my definition of what's political may be way overinflated), most notably the whale and dolphin hunts.  I stand in support of the fishermen and other seaside property owners in Japan and their Right to use their natural resources however they see fit!

I must also give big kudos to Japan for finally beginning to formally acknowledge the tyranny that they imposed on the Korean people throughout the centuries, and particularly leading up to and during WW2.

[cavalier973]

This article is apropos, I think:
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~trefler/eco328/supplemental/porter.pdf

It's a fascinating description how Japan's economy developed.  The government of Japan tried to boost certain industries in order to get Japan into "the modern world"; it failed.  However, the industries that the government basically ignored (electronics, video games) became the basis for Japanese economic growth.

Bringing it up to the 1990's, Japan hit a recession, and apparently elected its version of the Obama administration to "fix" the economy.  Now we have this thread.


I am not a big fan of Japanese culture, but I do like the country--seeing them as a strong ally of America in the modern world (this was my view in the 1990's, anyway; I'm guessing that the "war on terror", among other things, distanced relations between our nations).  I could not understand the Japan bashing in the 80's and 90's, and by the end of the 1990's, I found it humorous that you never heard about "the Japanese taking over" anymore.  The article, though published a decade ago, gives some good reasons why.

[BobRobertson]

While the Japanese government tries very hard to be "business friendly", the country is organized very socialistically on the inside.

Mises has many articles on the Japanese decades old effort to Keynesian "stimulate" themselves, a continuing and endless failure.

The problem I had when I was living there was watching as they tried everything to inflate their currency and maintain "liquidity", and yet the dollar matched the yen continually.

...which meant that the US was doing exactly the same thing, just quietly.

Anyway, just search Mises.org for "Japan" and get all the abuse you might want.

[TimeLady Victorious]

http://kotaku.com/5484581/japan-its-not-funny-anymore

This article may apply here too.

[cavalier973]

http://kotaku.com/5484581/japan-its-not-funny-anymore

This article may apply here too.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
"I once pointed out, to a police officer, that someone was smoking in the no-smoking zone, and asked if he would fine him, and the cop simply asked me for my ID, passport, and visa papers. He looked them over, gave them back, and turned away."

"A couple years later, another person learned I didn't smoke, and acted surprised. 'I figured you must smoke because, you know; you play video games.' "

[Alex Libman]

Japanese uncollness news roundup:

• China overtakes Japan in 2Q as No. 2 economy

• Honda Built More Cars in U.S. than in Japan for Q2

• Evil Devil Fish brings Ill Omen to Japan

• Japan's "democrats" hang two convicted killers

• Japan hits smokers where it hurts

• 9 Beloved Characters Made Horrifying by Japan

[TimeLady Victorious]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/07/28/japan.execution/index.html?iref=24hours

I see no problem with this.

[Alex Libman]

Killing an attacker in self-defense is one thing, but once he is apprehended applying the death penalty is completely irrational.  It doesn't serve as an effective deterrent, while being forced to work for the rest of your miserable life to pay restitution (to victims' families / inheritors or appropriate charities) is more likely to make you think twice.  The death penalty brings out the public pity and emotion for all the wrong reasons, and some pieces of shit might actually want the attention, so it would only encourage them.  It actually costs more money to put someone to death, even without prison labor, because of all the extra legal costs 'n stuff.  Plus death is so final and irreversible, while no justice system is 100% infallible.

Plus hanging is a pretty painful way to kill someone, especially a Jap - they tend to be lighter and have stronger necks for some reason, so death takes longer.

[TimeLady Victorious]

Get rid of the extra legal costs. In today's day you can't just have it done on testimonials alone; you actually have to have shit like DNA evidence there, hopefully lots of it.

But this is Japan we're talking about, a country where a guy who tortured, killed, and ate a foreign woman only served something like 7-10 years in prison. And now goes on the celeb reality shows in Japan.

[mrapplecastle]

maybe its all the whale meat, or dolphin meat sold as whale