Global Voices » Japanese

Japan: New Video Footage of Tsunami Tidal Surge

Juliana Rincón Parra — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:33:43 +0000

Devastating tsunami tidal surges are quiet and quick, as a recently uploaded video shows. The video was recorded from inside a truck which got stuck in the rising waters more than 1 mile from the coast 1 hour after the March 11 earthquake. The driver was able to swim to safety.

Japan: Life Decisions in the Face of Radiation Fear

Tomomi Sasaki — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:25:40 +0000

Fearing long-term health effects of radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, some residents in mainland Japan have made the decision to uproot their families and move to other prefectures or countries. Actual numbers are unclear and multiple reasons factor in on these life decisions, but these moves differ in nature from the more reactive evacuations that occurred in the following weeks of the initial disasters.

Blogger Taku Nakajima was one of those who decided to stay. He articulated his thoughts in a post titled I want to be able to respect those who made a different decision (自分と違う決断をした人に敬意を持てるようになれたらいいな) [jp], calling for a more logical understanding of the nuanced undercurrents of our emotional struggles.

Note: This blog post was translated in its entirety with permission from the blogger.

Moving boxes by Flickr user bao_bao (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Let’s say that a friend moved away due to fear of radiation while I stayed, and we ran into each other twenty years down the line. If my family wasn’t facing any health hazards, it means I had “won”. I would probably feel superior and say something like, “It must have been so difficult for you, then!”. On the other hand, if any of my loved ones were sick, that would be “losing”. I'd most likely spend time thinking about this excuse and that. Either way, it’s a sad situation.

Even though our decisions ended up taking us down different roads, both were very difficult choices made after much deliberation. I want us to genuinely rejoice in our reunion and say to each other, “That was such a difficult time but I’m so happy that we both did our best.” I want to be somebody who can respect others that chose a different path. Right now, I can only imagine my future self stoically holding back any real emotions and giving lip service. Somehow, I want to be in a place where I can be positive about both of our situations, in either of the possible cases.

Him moving away causes my fear of radiation to grow twofold. Of course, there is no reason for me to be afraid - I have very high information literacy and I believe the information from my research to be accurate. Still, no matter how absurd and ignorant I think my friend is being, his was a life changing decision that required overcoming multiple risks. Just the fact that there’s someone like that close by is quite shocking, and I abhor him for causing this distress in me. And, this emotion will cause a dark shadow to fall upon us, when we meet again in the future.

I believe I am a person that can push down that animosity and act in a gentlemanly way - unless something extreme happens - but that doesn’t mean I can stop myself from hating and worrying. Why is it necessary to have such thoughts when others interpret situations differently? Is it useful in any way?

The question should be this - has each of us done our very best with what we know at that point? I want to communicate my understanding of the situation to my friend, as reference, before he moves away. I also want to listen carefully to what he has to say. I want to do my very best in that. And, if that leads to different actions… well, that would have been based on whatever decision we both thought best. Isn’t that all we can hope for?

Whatever action my friend takes, some bit of fear in me existed from the beginning. That can’t be helped but his moving away shouldn’t be increasing my fear. I want to do away with that added negativity. I certainly don’t want it to be aimed towards him. That’s the kind of person that I want to be.

Low level radiation is a really subtle issue. Moving is an all or nothing discussion but there are a lot of disparities in how to interpret things, such as what to do for foodstuff. Each of these decisions that must be made in daily life create complex chasms.

Even if it looks like your worries increased because someone made a different decision, that anxiety was probably inside you from the start, so we shouldn’t blame them. Of course, if someone believes something that is obviously incorrect, we should tell them. If all of us were more conscious of the fear that we carry inside of us, it will make for better communication all around.

Kobe, Japan: Running Through a City Once Devastated

Kazuko Ohchi — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 08:38:57 +0000

Over 1.5 million people were living in the industrial and cultural city of Kobe when a 7.3-magnitude earthquake hit on January 17, 1995. More than 6,000 lives were lost and much of the city was cut off from gas, electricity and water. Many people lost their jobs and/or homes, while vacant lots were scattered everywhere across the city.

While a city cannot regain all of the things it lost, Kobe has re-emerged as a bustling city brightened by new lights in the 17 years since the disaster.

On November 20, 2011, the city held its first ever official marathon event. More than 20,000 runners completed the 42.195 km distance for “Kobe Marathon 2011”, running through famous tourist spots as well as former vacant areas. Among them were 641 runners who came from the Tohoku region, which had been devastated by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake this March.

Capturing the energy of a city that has fought to overcome a disaster rouses the spirits of its people, and encourages those who are in the midst of going through similar difficulties themselves. The event theme articulates the spirit of the organizers who decided to hold the marathon event at the very place where people had struggled to rebuild their city.

“Event Theme: “Thanks and Friendship”, We would like to express our sincere thanks to the people and communities in Japan and overseas who reached out to us in our hour of need, and are still reaching out to us as we seek to recover from the recent disaster.

Ahead of the start whistle, some runners and supporters expressed their feelings.

A runner from Tohoku answered in a video interview [ja]:

同じ経験をされた地だと思いますので、それを胸に一緒になって走っていきたいと思います。

Kobe is a place that went through the same experiences. I will run with the other runners today with this in mind.

A supporter described her pleasure that the formerly devastated city held such a big event:

@juju_fleur：間もなく神戸マラソンスタート!!震災で大きな被害を受けたこの街で、25000人のマラソン大会が実現するなんて、当時を思い出すと感無量です。ランナーもスタッフも頑張って!!応援行きます!!

@juju_fleur: Kobe marathon is about to start!! This city, once devastated by an earthquake, is about to hold a marathon event with 25,000-runners. My heart is full as we remember those days. Runners and staff members, do your best!! ! I’ll be there to cheer you on.

Runners from Tohoku were running with green ribbons. The PR Twitter account from Kobe City tweeted to increase extra cheering for the green-ribbon runners.

@kobecity0311神戸市広報専門官　松下麻理：
【神戸マラソン】ランナー快走中！緑のリボンをつけて走っておられる方は、被災地から来られたランナーです。大きな声援をお願いします！ pic.twitter.com/5cl5mCgT

@kobecity0311 Mari Matsushita, public relation officer of Kobe city:
[Kobe marathon] Runners, on a good note! When you find runners with green ribbons, give your great cheer to them. They are from Tohoku! pic.twitter.com/5cl5mCgT

A runner from Tohoku

A short video of the event has been uploaded to YouTube, where a runner from Tohoku is expressing his impression of the event.

まだ自分の街が建物も信号もない状態が続いてるんですけど、自分の街も将来復興するというイメージがつきました。

Our town still doesn’t have buildings or traffic lights, but I can now imagine how our town will surely be rebuilt down the road, too.

We can also feel the atmosphere of the event from many blogs. This blogger wrote multiple entries on participating in the marathon:

sakaeのniponipoブログ：
『スーパーマンの紛争で
走っておられるランナーと会いました。
真っ赤なマントには、
「　神戸　ありがとう　　東北は負けません　」
と書かれていました。』

『沿道からも、
「　東北、頑張れ～！　」　「　スーパーマン～、頑張って～！　」
「　神戸がついてるよ～！　」
と、多くの方が声援を送っていました。
この神戸の４２kmに、どんな景色が見えたのでしょうか。
どんな思いを胸に走っておられたのでしょうか。
４２kmを走りきった充実感とともに、
大きな希望と、温かい想いと、
前へ向かっていく強い気持を持って
故郷へ戻っていかれたことを願います』

sakae’s niponipo blog:
I met a runner in a Superman costume. The famous red cloak carried the message, “Thank you, Kobe. Tohoku won’t give in.And many supporters in the sidelines cheered for Superman - ‘Go, Tohoku!’, ‘Go, Superman!’, ‘Kobe is with you!’. I wonder what scenes he encountered during the 42km in Kobe? What was going through in his mind as he ran towards the goal? I hope Superman went back home with a sense of fulfillment for finishing the marathon big hopes, warm memories and a strong resolve to keep pushing forward.”

Ryuji Watanabe from Fukushima Prefecture, one of the many people who completed the marathon, wrote down his memories on the website “Koide Dojo”, the runners’ group to which he belongs:

マラソンを通じて「復興run」、東北から元気な発信を少しでも出来たと思います。そして今回の大会で
多くの方々が声かけてくれて、「兄ちゃん太ってるけどがんばりや～」「あごあがってるで～」
「ふくしま頑張れ～」等本当に走っていて、涙が出ました。号泣しながら走っていました。
本当に私は皆さんに支えられて生きてるのだ～と実感しました。

I think I succeeded in ‘running to rebuild’ and delivering our energy from the Tohoku region. Throughout the event, so many people encouraged me by saying things like ‘My friend, you’re pudgy but doing great!’, ‘Breathe, breathe, breathe!’,‘Go, Fukushima!’ and so on … I found myself in tears. I was running and crying so hard at the same time. I realized yet again that the support of other people is what keeps me going.

Meanwhile, the revitalized city of Kobe does not mean that people have forgotten the earthquake that hit 17 years ago. They still have scenes of those days clearly in their mind.

@uraimayumi：ヘリが沢山飛んでる。神戸マラソンの準備なんだろうけど、震災を思い出してしまった‥ twitpic.com/7fms8u

@uraimayumi：So many helicopters are hovering, looks like the preparation for the marathon event. But it makes me recall the days of the earthquake. twitpic.com/7fms8u

Japan: I am Isolated in My Workplace

Tomomi Sasaki — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:55:28 +0000

“The Internet can be a saving grace if you’re isolated in your school or workplace.” - This was a remark from my recent interview with Izumi Mihashi from Lingua Japanese. I was reminded of it when chancing upon a poignant cry in the form of an anonymous blog entry [ja].

Bullying doesn’t stop at the schoolyard.

by Flickr user maciejgruszecki.com

Note: This post was translated in its entirety. Please note that the original text does not give any indication of gender for any of the characters, but the translation assumes that the blogger and colleague are male for brevity's sake.

Today, I realized yet again that the treatment I receive at my workplace is really acrimonious. I went to work in the morning, checked my e-mail, and got chewed out by four people for four different things within the first hour. When I was alone, I couldn’t help but quietly laugh with bitterness.

I feel that if I can just find one positive thing to latch onto, I can work out some of these issues as long as I apply myself to it. The thing is, I can’t help but think that I’m just being cut off completely.

After the troubles that morning, I ended up with some free time on my hands. I went up to one of the people that had gotten angry at me and quietly asked, “Is there anything I can help with?”. He replied “No”, with a very tired face. That he couldn’t trust me with anything was written all over his face.

I felt extremely sorry, embarrassed, and so many other emotions mixed together. From the bottom of my heart, I wanted to say, “I’m so sorry for making you feel this way.” It was all I could do to force a smile and say, “Please let me know if there’s anything I can help you with.” After going back to my seat, I reviewed my past work to see if there was anything to do. There were many errors, so I went to work on fixing them.

It’s cold at my window seat so I got some hot tea from the vending machine and sat back down, trying to warm myself. The person next to me furiously shouted, “Don’t bring anything that smells to your seat. What are you thinking!?”. I begged forgiveness - almost on my knees - and escaped to the coffee room.

Feeling depressed, I looked out the window from the coffee room and thought about ways that I might improve myself. The only plan that I could come up with in my current state was very general - there’s nothing that I can do except take extra care with my actions and do my best.

This kind of life has been going on for more than three months. In all honesty, I want to quit this company. I think it’s time.

Sometimes, I think I shouldn’t be here. Still, quitting without making personal improvements feels like running away. I can’t do that. Me breaking down mentally, or my colleagues’ patience reaching the limit… which will come first?

I’m so sorry that I’m such a miserable person. I’m just so sorry.
And, I’ve caught a cold. But I can’t take a day off.

Japan: Coworking Magazine Launched

Tomomi Sasaki — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 11:52:19 +0000

Cowarp [ja]: There's been a surge of interest around coworking spaces and its culture, and now there's a brand new online magazine for it.

“Let Us Dream”: Demonstrating Against Unified Job Hunting in Japan

Tomomi Sasaki — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:25:55 +0000

Each spring, the job hunting season starts and Japanese students in their third year of university start preparing by suiting up, attending seminars and job fairs, and having bouts of soul searching. They apply to dozens of companies, each with multiple rounds of examinations and interviews, until they receive one or several job offers.

The process can take up a large chunk of the last two years of school; a mentally and physically draining time that eats into one’s self-confidence.

"Job Hunting Seminar for Sophomore Students" by Flickr user shinyai (CC BY-NC 2.0).

On Labor Day, students held demonstrations in Tokyo and Kyoto to rally against this system, expressing anger towards the irrational hoops and hurdles that impede on studying time. The demonstration also criticized the commercialization of job hunting, pointing fingers to several major online student/company matching services that play a big part in the ecosystem of the practice.

The organizers used blogs and Twitter (@syukatsu_tokyo and @S_demo_Kyoto) to call for support, and eventually round up more than a hundred demonstrators.

@syukatsu_tokyo: 【拡散願】とうとう後2日！就活ぶっこわせデモ、水曜日13時半アルタ前集合です！！行こうか行くまいか迷っているそこのあなた！！遠目に見てるだけでも構わない！ぜひ新宿アルタ前に！ #就活デモ

[Please RT] Two more days to go! We will be gathering for the demonstration to abolish university graduate job recruitment practices in front of the Shinjuku Alta building at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday! Still undecided? Just come to watch, then. Meet up in front of Shinjuku Alta!

This is one of their messages:

@hosyukakumei: 競争はあってもいいと思うんんだけど、共生を目指したいんです。同じ日本人通しで勝ち組とか負け組とかいうレッテルを貼りあうのはもういい加減やめませんか？少なくとも私はそういう不毛な争いに疲れました。 #就活デモ

Competition is fine, but we'd like to aim for peaceful coexistence. Couldn’t we just stop the cavalier labels of “winners” and “losers” among ourselves? I, at least, am tired of such unproductive conflicts.

The Tokyo organizers report that more than 1,000 people watched the live stream, while the archived footage garnered over 6,000 views.

The demonstration gathered attention in the online sphere. Many commented that the intent of the demonstration was unclear, although there were some that supported the act of having a demonstration.

@yatabe_: 就活ぶっこわせデモを傍観してきたけど（参加はしてない）主張がなくて何が言いたいのかわかんなかった。試みは面白いだけに非常に残念。「就活くたばれ」「○○ナビ潰れろ」「ゆとりにゆとりを」「夢を見させろ」って叫びながら歩いてたけど、わがまま言ってるようにしか聞こえなかった。　#就活デモ

I went to watch the demonstration against graduate job recruitment practices from the sidelines (I did not participate in it), but there was no emphasis on any particular point. I couldn’t figure out what they were trying to say and it’s too bad, because the initiative itself is interesting. Demonstrators were chanting “Down with the graduate job recruitment process,” “Crush the _ _navi [an online match service for students and companies]”, “Make room for the Yutori Generation” and “Let us dream”. This just sounded selfish.

@hgkent: でも個人的にはやる意味は十分あると思う　頭の良い人は就活が労働全般の構造問題だってわかってるし、それを変えるにはデモだけじゃ足りないってことも　だから生半可に考えてるならやめろってことかもしれない　でもでも、気づいてない人のほうがたくさんいるんだよ　それが問題なんだよ　#就活デモ

Still, I personally think the act of demonstrating against it has plenty of meaning. Intelligent people understand that the simultaneous recruitment of university graduates is a structural issue and that a demo alone is not sufficient to change this practice. Maybe that is why there’s a need for people to stop treating this issue in a superficial manner…. but many people lack this kind of awareness. This is where the problem lies!

@kobayashiokamu: 明日の就活デモ、思ったより議論が深まってなくてちょっと残念なところもあるけど、とりあえず今の就活はシステムだけじゃなく独特な習慣や作法的な部分がキモすぎるからそこはぶっ壊し希望。

I was a bit let down that the discussions surrounding tomorrow’s demonstration did not deepen as I expected. Some of the unique social practices and rules of behavior are so esoteric though, so I agree with the premise of crushing the system!

Here are some voices that question the futility of tearing down this system.

@chakist: 新卒採用枠をなくしたところで既卒の採用枠が広がるとは思えないし、広がったとしても何の経験もない新卒者の門戸がさらに狭まると思うけどね。既卒として経験者募集の求人ばかり見てる身としては。 #就活デモ

Getting rid of the specific window for fresh graduates wouldn't increase opportunities for non-fresh graduates. Additionally, fresh graduates would have an even harder time finding a job if they had to compete with everyone else, since they don't have any working experience. That's how I feel, as someone who's NOT a fresh graduate and is looking his next job.

@Harnyan726: 就職できない人、社会のシステムからこぼれ落ちる人がいるので生活保護なり何なりで野垂れ死にを防止しましょう、というなら分かるのだが、就職できない人がいなくなるような就活システムってそれ社会主義だから

I would understand if the message was promoting a helping hand via welfare benefits or some such measures to people who can’t find jobs or who slip through the cracks of our society. Come on! The kind of employment system in which everyone has a job is called socialism.

Photo of the demonstration from the official blog

It’s a catch 22 situation for students. Rebelling against the system - no matter how wrong you think it is - is probably not going to help your chances of getting a job. And if you've managed to secure a job, would you be so passionate about this cause? It makes people curious and dubious about who exactly is participating.

@sankakutyuu: 「高学歴の俺様に相応しいクリエイティブでファッショナブルな仕事寄越せ」なんつー無理筋な話じゃなくって「一生居酒屋バイトでも所帯を持って幸福の内に生命を終えることができる世の中にしろ！」と声を挙げることが何故できないの？ #就活デモ

Why can’t the demonstrators raise their voices to say, “Create a world a place where I can have a family and lead a happy life even though I only have a temporary job working in a pub,” instead of something clearly unreasonable to the tune of “Give me a creative and cool-sounding job that is worthy of my high level of education”?

@hatiue46: 就活システムに関しても、変えられるのはこの就活システムによって職を得た人たちなわけだが、いざ就職できてしまうと就活時に理不尽さを感じていても、変えようという気がなくなってしまうのだと思う。こういったのを変えられるのはベンチャーくらい？

The only people who can change things are those who have obtained employment through this very system. However, I think that people lose their motivation for change once they’ve started working, even if they felt during the process that it was highly unjust. Perhaps startups are the only ones who can shake things up?!

Thanks to Ian McKenzie for helping with the translation.

Japan: WordCamp Tokyo is Tomorrow

Tomomi Sasaki — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:58:28 +0000

WordCamp Tokyo 2011 will be held November 27th. The organizers are running a relay blog [ja] that describes why you should go and what's happening behind the scenes.

Japan: Clouds over Tokyo

Tomomi Sasaki — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:47:25 +0000

@yoisin compiled [ja] a list of over 70 tweets with photographs that capture the ominous clouds that drifter over Tokyo today.

Japan: Using videos to explain basics of nuclear power

Tomomi Sasaki — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:32:54 +0000

MOJO [ja] creates 2-3 minute videos that explain the basics of radioactivity monitoring and decontamination, via conversations between illustrated characters and interviews with officials and experts. Their most recent video [ja] answers the question, “What is decontamination?”.

Japan: Design Week in Tokyo

Tomomi Sasaki — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 15:15:42 +0000

The annual Design Week in Tokyo is here - online magazine greenz [ja] is covering the trade show Tokyo Designers Week while Spoon and Tamago showcases exhibits from DesignTide Tokyo.

Japan's IT Exodus: A Personal Perspective (Part 2)

Chris Salzberg — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 10:19:14 +0000

Why are Japanese companies losing their programming talent? There are no lack of discussions on the topic, but far fewer first-person perspectives. Blogger/programmer Ryo Asai (@ryoasai74) and his blog “Becoming a Master Programmer” provide one. After working for seven years at a Japanese IT company in the system integration sector, Asai recently decided to apply for a position at Amazon Japan, and got the job.

In this article, I'll be translating a blog post by Asai titled “What I noticed about the differences between Waterfall and Agile programming approaches after changing jobs” [jp] (転職して感じたウォーターフォール文化とアジャイル文化の違いについて). For background on why Asai decided to quit his previous job, see Part 1 of this series.

Bookshelf photo by Flickr user Roo Reynolds

A Global workplace

Asai begins the post with a run-down of the challenges he's faced so far at his new workplace:

やはり、自分としては、外資系の会社で英語でのコミュニケーションが必要となるということが、最も気がかりなことでした。実際、初日の歓迎ランチはいきなり名前もわからない多くの外国人に囲まれる状況でしたし、電話会議を使って中国やアメリカのチームと一緒に行う日々の進捗ミーティングも英語で行われています。自分としては、特に、リスニングが苦手ということもあり、いまだに完全に会話についていくのが困難なところはありますが、同僚やマネージャーもみんなすごく親切に教えてくれるので安心しました。私は新しい環境に慣れるのに結構時間がかかる方なので、まだまだ完全に新しい職場の文化に適応するというところまではいかないのですが、徐々に仕事のやり方を覚えて、チームの一員として頼られる存在となれるよう努力していきたいですね。

What caused me the most anxiety, working at a foreign company, was having to communicate in English. On the welcome lunch on the first day, suddenly being surrounded by a bunch of foreigners whose names I didn’t even know, then having daily meetings via conference calls, also in English, with teams in China and America. My English listening skills aren’t that great, so it’s pretty hard for me to follow a conversation in English completely, but my coworkers and managers were all really kind in explaining things to me, and that reassured me. I’m someone who takes quite a lot of time to adjust to a new environment, and I’m not yet fully adapted to my new workplace, but slowly I’m learning how things work, and really putting a lot of effort to adjust and become one of the team.

ということで、実はまだ新しい会社の文化を完全に理解したという段階ではないのですが、それでも以前私が働いていたSI業界の文化とアジャイルな考え方が尊重されるグローバル企業とでは、やはり大きな違いがあるなということは、実際にはっきりと感じられますね。

Although I’m not yet at the stage where I can say that I’ve fully grasped the culture of the new company, I’m already sensing very keenly the sharp differences between the culture of my previous job, in the SI (system integration) industry, and the culture of my current job, a global corporation which follows an agile approach.

An agile workplace

This agile approach to software development also required some adjustment:

まず、第一に大きく違うと思ったのは、会社の売上や利益に直接つながる、ビジネスの中心に近いところに開発チームが置かれていて、当然プログラマーはプロダクトオーナーなどビジネス担当の人と密接にやり取りをしながら開発を進めるというところがありますね。ビジネス担当の人とプログラマーが同じ部屋で作業をするということはもちろん、たとえば「この項目を外すとプログラムはすごくシンプルになるし、顧客にとっても画面がすっきりしてメリットがあると思いますが。」といったような提案をプログラマーからすると、あっさり認められて翌月のリリースに変更を反映するといったことが日常に行われています。

The first thing that I noticed was really different is that the development team is positioned very close to the heart of the business that directly influences the company’s sales and profits. This naturally means that developers are in close communication with those in charge of business such as the product managers. The business people and programmers are in the same room, and from the point of view of the programmer, this means that every day, proposals to, for example, delete a field to make the code simpler and user interface cleaner are quickly approved and incorporated into next month’s release.

少しでも使いやすいシステムの開発に貢献することで、売上に貢献するのだというモチベーションも湧きます。ウォーターフォールが中心のSI業界のやり方だと、項目の追加はまだしも削除などと言うことを提案しても、稟議書などを上げて何階層にもわたった承認が必要で、何週間、何か月も待つといったことは普通だと思います。そのような状況があるので、PGの側でもよいアイデアがあっても、わざわざ提案しようという気にはならないし、逆に、仕様書に書かれていることのみを実装して、余程の問題がない限りそれ以上のことはやらないという傾向が強くなってしまうところがあると思います。

Knowing that even your small contribution to making the system more easy-to-use will lead to increased sales is a big motivator. In the SI (System Integration) industry, with its focus on the waterfall model of development, just adding or removing a field requires writing up an official request and getting approval from various levels of management, and typically takes weeks if not months to finalize. What tends to happen as a result, I find, is that even if a programmer has a good idea, they won’t go the trouble of actually proposing it, and instead simply implement exactly what’s written in the specs, unless there’s some kind of major problem.

それから、チームのサイズが小さくて、業務担当の人とプログラマーが直接会話できる距離にあるため、作成する文書は非常に少ないというところがあります。これはもちろんチームによると思いますが、開発後に説明のためWikiに情報を書くということはあっても実装前にWordやExcelの文書を作成するということはめったにないですし、作業時間の大半はEmacs、Vim、Eclipseといったツールを立ち上げてのコーディング、単体テストの作業が中心となります。以前は自分自身がコードを書くといった作業にあてられる時間は、全体のプロジェクトの中ではせいぜい10%程度でしたので、そこは大きな違いだと感じています。逆に言うと、自分の英語力のなさから、口頭で英語で説明を受けても理解しにくいというところがあり、時としてきちんと書かれた仕様書が恋しくなる時もあるわけですが、そこは文化の違いですね。

Teams [at Amazon] are also small, with people in charge of operations close enough to programmers to interact closely with them, resulting in far less documentation. While this may of course vary from team to team, I’ve found that while wikis are used to document code post-development, there are very few cases of people producing Word or Excel documents prior to implementation — most of our time is spent coding and unit testing in tools such as Emacs, Vim and Eclipse. At my previous job, I probably spent at most 10% of my time on the project actually writing code, so this was a really big change for me. On the other hand, my English isn’t very good, so even when people would try to explain things to me, I often had trouble understanding. This made me sometimes long for clearly-written specifications, but I guess this is a cultural difference.

A dynamic workplace

The business model at Amazon is also different to his previous workplace:

さらに、B2Cでどんどん新しい機能をリリースしていくという環境では、システム全体を何年もかけて作り直すという機会はほとんどありません。むしろ、細かい機能改善やバグフィックスを行うというプレッシャーが常にあり、その中で空き時間を見つけてリファクタリングを繰り返すという方向になります。

To add to this, my new workplace follows the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) model in which new functions are constantly being released, so even over a span of many years, there are hardly any opportunities to rebuild the entire system. Quite the contrary, there is constant pressure to incrementally improve functionality and fix bugs, and the refactoring is done within any free time that can be found.

そういう意味では、SIerのように新システムの開発をゼロから行うという機会はめったにありません。だから、常に最新の言語やフレームワークでなくては嫌な人には向いていないかもしれません。一方、SIerの場合は自分のシステムを維持管理するという機会は少ないのですから、むしろ、最新の最良の開発手法を取り込めばすごく面白い仕事ができるのに、実際には古いフレームワークを使い続けているケースが多いというのは残念なことですね。

In that sense, there are virtually no opportunities [at Amazon] to build a system from the ground up, as a System Integrator (SIer) does. So it might not be the right kind of work for someone who wants to always work with the latest languages and frameworks. On the other hand, system integrators don’t have many opportunities to maintain and administer their own systems, so although their work could be really interesting if they were able to adopt the latest and best development techniques, in reality most end up stuck continuously working with old frameworks.

Asai's earlier blog entry discussed the so-called “retirement age” of 35 imposed on programmers in Japan. But Amazon has no such retirement age:

なお、気にしていた自分の年齢ですが、やはり、グローバルな会社では35歳定年などということは全くないですね。今の会社の場合は全くの新卒というよりも、ある程度経験を積んだ人を中心に採用しているようなので、プログラマーとして自分くらいの年齢でも結構普通みたいです。実際、おじさんというレベルを超えて、そろそろ孫がいても不思議でない、おじいさんという感じの年齢の現役プログラマーもたくさん活躍しています。もちろん、年齢というよりはスキルによってポジションが決まるので、年齢が下の人がより上級のプログラマーということも普通にあり得ます。（おじさんと書きましたが、もちろん、グローバルには女性のプログラマーもたくさんいます。）

One thing I was worried when I started my new job was my age, but I’ve found that at a global corporation, there’s no retirement at age 35. At my new job, they seem to focus on hiring people who have some degree of experience over fresh graduates, so for a programmer, my age is nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, there are a lot of very active programmers here who are much older, almost like old men — you could imagine some of them might even have grandchildren. Of course, positions are filled based on skills not age, so there are also lots of younger programmers in higher-ranking jobs. (I wrote “old men”, but of course there are also many women programmers at global corporations.)

Feedback

In bookmark comments, responses to the post were positive:

megascus:

改善ができるというのは素晴らしい。

It's amazing that they can continuously improve [the systems] like that.

mongolianpunch:

楽しそうだなー

Wow, sounds like so much fun!

For those who were already thinking of changing jobs, the post was a useful reference point. allargand writes:

グローバル企業への転職を検討しているところだったので、非常に参考になりました。

I was just looking into switching jobs to work at a global corporation, so this was extremely useful.

And kingyodojo, perhaps hinting at a trend:

読んだら今の仕事を続けていていいのか疑問を持った。

Now that I've read this, I wonder if I should keep working at my current job.

For more on Asai's perspective on Japan's IT industry, see also a comment he posted on the first article in this series.

Japan’s IT Exodus: A Personal Perspective (Part 1)

Chris Salzberg — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 10:37:46 +0000

In 2008, a movie was released in Japan with the title “Genkai in a Black Company”, depicting the life of a 26-year-old struggling to make a living in the gruelling conditions a so-called “black company”. The term is Japanese slang for companies with long hours, dreadful working conditions and miserable pay that exploit their employees beyond the legal limit — last-ditch options for those who can't get better work. The company in the movie, though, was not the kind you might associate with such a backward, sweatshop-like workplace. It was an IT company.

Not surprisingly, young Japanese are none too keen to work in such coding sweatshops, which are all too real (the movie itself is based on a true story, and a not uncommon one). It doesn't help that programmers are associated in the public eye with social ineptness, and that the programming task itself is often viewed as grunt work, or not understood at all [ja]. Young Japanese are steadily fleeing the industry, and the exodus is one of the main reasons why Japan is losing its competitiveness in the new digital age.

The blogger and his dog

A personal perspective

37-year-old software architect Ryo Asai (@ryoasai74) and his blog “Becoming a Master Programmer” (達人プログラマーを目指して) [jp] offer a rare counterpoint to this gloomy picture, and a unique window onto the state of the IT industry in Japan. In his profile, the blogger explains:

世間ではプログラマーは忙しいわりに報酬の少ない報われない職業という意見もあるようですが、インターネットで気軽に情報を発信したり、オープンソースのコミュニティに参加して一緒に開発したり、プログラマーが活躍できる場所は以前と比べてずっと広がっているということに最近ようやく気づきました。勉強の材料もインターネットからほとんど無料で手に入る時代ですし、やはりプログラミングが好きな人間にとっては本当に魅力的な仕事であると思います。IT業界の現在や未来には悲観的な意見が多く、特にプログラマーに対しては魅力的な職業でないと感じる人々が多いのは残念なことです。ただ、IT技術はなくなるどころか急速な勢いで高度化しているのですから、今後スキルの高い達人プログラマーが活躍できる場所がもっと増えてくるのではないかと信じています。

While the life of the programmer is commonly seen as unrewarding, stressful and poorly remunerated, I’ve come to see recently that there have been some changes. There is a growing space where developers thrive, sharing information freely online and participating through open-source communities in collaborative development. We are in an age today where most study materials can be accessed freely online, an age that is truly inspiring for anyone who enjoys programming. It is terribly unfortunate that so many people view with great pessimism the IT industry and its future, and in particular that so many see programming as an unattractive profession. But the truth is that far from disappearing, information technology is advancing at breakneck speed, and this, I believe, will create many more places in the future for skilled programmers to thrive.

After working for seven years at OGIS-RI, a Japanese system integration company, Asai recently quit to take a job at Amazon Japan. The posts translated in the first part of this two-part series document the motivations for this move.

A passion for programming

Counter to the “black company” image, Asai's experience of being an engineer at a Japanese IT company was positive. In a blog entry posted on October 3rd, he writes [jp] of his environment at OGIS-RI:

およそ7年間にわたり、前職のオージス総研ではソフトウェアアーキテクトとして、SOAやEAといった全社的なシステムのアーキテクチャから、上流のモデリング、Java EEを使ったアプリケーションの開発など、技術者として様々な経験を積ませていただきました。私自身はこのブログでも何度も取り上げてきたように、モデリングやオブジェクト指向といった技術を用いて、実際の基幹業務システムの設計などに活用することで、高品質で保守性の高いシステムの構築に貢献したいという思いがありました。そのようなシステムを構築、維持するためには高品質なアーキテクチャの構築が必要不可欠であり、それが、結果としてお客様の業務を効率化させ、さらにビジネスの価値を向上させることにつながるという信念がありました。

Over the past 7 years as a software architect at OGIS-RI, I have built up a wide range of experience on everything from company-wide system architecture, to upstream modeling and JAVA EE-based application development. [EE = Enterprise Edition] As I have mentioned many times in the past in this blog, it’s always been my desire to contribute to building high-quality, highly-maintainable systems by actively using modeling and object-oriented techniques in enterprise system design. High-quality architecture is essential to build and maintain such systems, and I’ve always believed that such architecture results in optimizing the client’s operations and contributes to increasing business value.

中でも私としては大変運の良いことに、実際のアプリケーション開発の現場に入って、Java EE、Spring、Hibernateといった標準技術やOSSを利用し、実際に再利用可能なフレームワークを段階的に構築し、複数のプロジェクトにわたって適用するという経験もできました。フレームワークチームとアプリケーションチームが完全に分断された世界で仕事をするのではなく、限られたリソースのなかでアプリケーションの要件をもとにフレームワークを段階的に進化させることが必要でした。複雑な金融商品のドメインモデルを構築したり、大量のトランザクションを処理するための高速化の仕組みを考えたり、ビルド自動化の工夫をするということは、単に新しい技術を適用するということ以上にわくわくする体験でした。

I’ve been very lucky to have found a position where I’m directly involved in actual application development, using standard techniques like Java EE, Spring [a Java framework] and Hibernate [a Java library], and Open Source Software (OSS), step by step building reusable frameworks, and applying them across various projects. Rather than being entirely separate, the framework team and the application team had to work together, gradually evolving frameworks based on application requirements and using limited resources. Above and beyond the excitement of simply applying new technologies, it was a thrilling experience to build domain models for complex financial instruments, devise ways to accelerate the processing of huge numbers of transactions, and come up with ways to automate builds.

また、以前に自分は恵まれた環境で仕事をさせてもらっていることに感謝しなくてはいけないと思う - 達人プログラマーを目指してでも書いたように、SIerの職場環境としては珍しく、技術について熱く語ることのできる仲間が周りにたくさんいるチームで、大変に恵まれた居心地のよい環境で仕事をさせていただくことができました。一緒に仕事をさせていただいた上司や同僚には本当に感謝の気持ちでいっぱいです。

Also, as I’ve written previously on this blog, I was fortunate in working in an extremely positive and supportive environment where I had lots of colleagues around me with whom I had spirited discussions on technology, something which is rare for a company in the the system integration (SI) sector. I am extremely thankful to my bosses and coworkers at OGIS-RI for that.

The 35 year age ceiling

But although his experience at his job was positive, Asai felt at 37 that he had hit a limit:

そういう意味で、なかなか自分から積極的に転職を考えようという気持ちにはなれなかったのですが、やはり、既に37歳という自分の年齢のためか、一般にこの業界で35歳定年説と言われているように、最近は開発現場でバリバリコードを書くという仕事からはどうしても遠ざかってしまっているところがありました。もちろん、自分の体力の衰えということもありますが、私としてはまだまだ現役でプログラムを書いていきたいという気持ちがありました。新技術の吸収力や理解の速さといった面では若い人にはかなわないかもしれませんが、リファクタリングやモデリングの技術などは経験によって深まるものであると思うからです。

In that sense, it was pretty hard for me to consider actively seeking a new job. But the thing is that in the end, maybe because of my age — I’m now 37, in an industry where people say the retirement age for an active programmer is 35 — I started realizing recently that however I might try to avoid it, I was being pulled away from intense coding work. Of course, part of this was due to a decline in physical capacity, but nonetheless I still very much had the drive to continue doing programming work. While I may not be able to compete with young people in terms of the speed with which they can absorb and understand new technologies, I have honed my refactoring and modeling skills through experience.

In a comment on the post, he expands on the roots of Japan's age ceiling on programmers, whereby coders are shifted away from coding to more managerial or consulting positions — usually around the age of 35:

実際に海外ではプログラマーの35歳定年説というものはまったくないと思います。35歳を過ぎているからといって全然特別なことはまったくありません。結局は仕事ができるかどうかで、年下が上司とかふつうだと思いますし。でも、日本のPGの募集だと35歳までとか制限を設けているところも実際に多いようですし、自分の経験上プログラミングはなるべく原価を抑えられる若い人を優先するという考え方もあって、だんだんとコードを書く仕事がなくなってくるのは事実だと思います。つまり、プログラマーの定年については、スポーツ選手のように個人の能力の問題というよりも、組織や給与体系の問題が大きいのではないかと思います。

I don’t think outside of Japan there’s anything like this “retirement age” of 35 that is imposed on programmers here. There’s absolutely nothing special about being over 35 years of age over there. All that matters is ultimately whether you can do the work or not, and often you have younger people in senior positions. But in Japan, there actually are a lot of places that impose this age limit of 35 when recruiting programmers, and from my experience, they favor younger programmers because that way they can keep costs down, leaving you with less and less programming work [as you get older]. In other words, the problem of the age limit is not a problem of individual ability, as it is say for athletes, but is a problem of organizations and their pay structure.

Ultimately, he found himself being pulled away from his passion:

そういう状況の中で、このブログのタイトルでもある「達人プログラマーを目指す」という自分の目標からどんどん遠ざかってしまっているのではないかという焦りや不安が常にありました。アーキテクトとしてパワーポイントやワードの説明資料を作成するのも広い意味でプログラミングの一種だと言って自分をごまかすこともできなくはないと思いますが、やはり、毎日IDEやエディタを起動してプログラミングスキルの向上や開発環境の改善に励みたいという思いがありました。

It was this situation that caused me to become impatient and uneasy that I was steadily drifting away from my goal of becoming a master programmer, the title of my blog. I suppose I could get around this by convincing myself that in a very broad sense, creating powerpoint slides and word documents to explain architecture is a type of programming, but really, I knew that what I really wanted was to open an IDE [Integrated Development Environment] or editor every day, and strive to boost my programming skills and improve the development environment.

Amazon Japan

Amazon, here I come

The pull away from programming convinced Asai to take the plunge and apply for a position at Amazon Japan. He writes of his motivations:

Amazonはサービス企業のイメージがあるかもしれませんが、IT技術によって小売をサポートするという広い意味においてSI業界におけるユーザー系企業に近い立場であり、エンタープライズ開発の一種であると考えることもできると思います。今回AWSではなく、Amazon.comの本業である小売業を支えるアプリケーションの開発を行うポジションに応募したのは、エンタープライズアプリケーション開発者としての経験を少しでもいかしたいという自分のこだわりというところもありました。

Amazon may have an image of being a service company, but in the broader sense that it supports retail through Internet technology, it’s position is similar to user-oriented corporations in the system integration (SI) industry, and what it is doing can be thought of as one type of enterprise development. The reason I applied for a position not at Amazon Web Services (AWS), but in application development for retail operations, Amazon.com’s core business, is that I wanted to put to use my experience as an enterprise application developer.

He writes of his interview:

詳しいことは書けませんが、面接はいわゆるシリコンバレー方式で、合計5時間くらいにわたって、同僚や上級のプログラマーからアルゴリズムやデータ構造など技術的な質問を英語で受け、心身ともにヘトヘトになりました。私の英語力の問題もありましたし、情報系の卒業でもなく、基礎的な計算機科学の勉強も不十分だったため、いきなりアルゴリズムに関するコードを書き下す問題にはなかなかてこずりました。

While I can’t reveal all the details of my interview experience at Amazon here, what I can say is that it was Silicon Valley-style: for five hours, I was subject to technical questions in English from Amazon junior and senior programmers on everything from algorithms to data structures, leaving me both mentally and physically exhausted. I had a pretty tough time suddenly coming up with code for algorithms on the spot like that, partly because my English skills are not very good, but also because I never graduated with an IT-related degree and haven’t studied enough basic computer science.

落ちても失うものは何もない、ダメでもともとという気持ちで応募したポジションですし、自分としてはこのチャンスを最大限に生かすべく、一日も早くAmazonのビジネスに技術力で貢献できる達人プログラマーの一員になることを目指して精いっぱい頑張っていきたいと考えています。

I applied for the position because I felt that I really had nothing to lose. Now that I’ve been given the chance, I want to make the most of it, and strive to become one of the expert programmers that contribute to Amazon’s business through technical capabilities.

Another loss for Japan

In bookmark comments, readers of Asai's blog offered their congratulations, and their thoughts:

H_Yamaguchi:

プログラマなら一度は通る道なんでしょうね。35才定年説に関係なくコードを書いていたいという気持ちと、実際の仕事との差にみんな悩むんだろうな。。。あっ、私も明日で37才、今日も明日もプログラマです。

This is something that every programmer experiences, I guess. The gap between the desire to continue writing code well pass the “retirement” age of 35, and the reality of the workplace, causes a lot of distress. But hey, I'll be turning 37 tomorrow, and I'll be programming then just as I am today.

tt4cs:

おめでとうございます！神の見えざる手に導かれたに違いないと、他人事ながら少しだけ感動しました。。

Congratulations! I'm really impressed — although it's not my position to say so, it strikes me that there must have been some invisible force drawing you to this path.

Nan_Homewood:

35過ぎても、こうやって転職できる方は凄い。かなり努力されていると思います。見習いたい。

I am so impressed by people over 35 who can switch jobs like this. It must take a lot of work. Now I want to follow his example.

And junkcollector, with the take-away message:

こうして優秀な人材を失っていく日本企業。昔のように残ってはくれない。

Japanese corporations are losing their talented programmers. It's not like the old days — they just don't put up with it anymore.

In the second part of this two-part series, I'll be introducing a follow-up post in which Asai describes his first few weeks at Amazon Japan, in particular the challenges he faces adapting to the different work culture. Stay tuned!

Here's the link to Part Two. [Note: Added November 5th]

Coworking Spaces and Nomad Workers in Japan

Tomomi Sasaki — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 11:52:00 +0000

Coworking is a growing worldwide movement, and Japan is no exception. Although known for its culture of long working hours and office-bound work style — traditions ingrained into the psyche of the salaried worker — the shift to coworking is not perhaps as surprising as it may seem.

The phase “nomad worker” hit mainstream consciousness with the publication of “You don’t need an office to work - The Nomad Workstyle” (仕事するのにオフィスはいらない - ノマドワーキングのすすめ) by popular writer Toshinao Sasaki in July, 2009. The conversation was taken to the next level by the earthquake on March 11th and the events that followed. With Tokyo facing several weeks of severely disrupted work and months of reduced electricity usage, the conversation around alternative methods of working naturally accelerated, from daylight savings time to a renewed interest in freelancing. Coworking was among these.

Journalist/consultant Ken Kato defines it this way:

コワーキング（Coworking）とは一言でいえば、アイディアや情報・ファシリティ・スキルなどをシェアすることにより、オフィス環境を共有する相乗効果を生み出そうとする新しい働き方です。既存のレンタルオフィスのような時間貸しのスペースとは異なり、会議室やイベントスペース等を兼ね備えたオープンな空間になっているのも特徴で、単なる空間ではなく、コミュニティ･スペースであると言えるでしょう。

In a nutshell, coworking is a new style of working that aims to generate a synergetic effect through the exchange of ideas, information, facilities, and skills in a shared working environment. Coworking offices, many of which have meeting rooms and event spaces, offer an inherent openness that make them different from existing pay-by-the-hour spaces such as rental offices. They're not just a venue but a community space.

Here is a shortlist map of coworking spaces in Japan. The green pins stand for spaces that allow both membership and drop ins, light blue is for shared offices (membership only), yellow is for cafe spaces (drop in only), pink is for corporate spaces (drop in only), and blue is for those that are not categorized.

View Coworking / Jelly! Map in a larger map

New coworking spaces are popping up like crazy, mostly in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kobe. One such example is “The Terminal” in Harajuku, Tokyo. Blogger Ayako documents her visit on its opening day this past August with a photo report.

Terminal, photo by Ayako on the Tokyo Nomad Work blog

Tomohiko Yoneda tweeted his impression:

今日オープニングレセプションがあった原宿のコワーキングスペース「ターミナル」は物凄い人で注目の高まりを伺えた。本当にノマドやワークスペースに大きな関心が寄せられていることを日に日に感じる。場所に縛られず仕事をしたり、人と交流する事に人々がどんどん意識的になっている時代。

The incredible buzz around the opening reception for Terminal is indicative of great interest in the new coworking space. I truly feel that the interest in nomad workers and workstyles is growing day by day. We're living in an age where we are consciously working through interactions with other people, and without being tied down to a physical location!

Tony Bacigalupo, the co-founder of New Work, visited no less than four coworking spaces in Tokyo on a recent trip. He comments about Paxi House, which is partly a restaurant specializing in coriander.

Seeing Paxi House combine restaurant and coworking space was an eye opening experience. To succeed and compete with their franchise chain counterparts, small cafes and restaurants must develop a strong following and a healthy community around their spaces. […] Coworking space owners would do well to pay close attention to how these existing business owners find success, not to mention how they cope with their small scale. Paxi House takes this analogy to the extreme by actually being both a small restaurant and coworking space. I would love to see more places like this popping up and succeeding.

Startup incubator Samurai Incubate just announced that it will open a coworking space for its startups, making it one of the country’s largest facilities of its kind. In an article covering their announcement, tech writer Masaru Ikeda provides a map of other startup-related facilities, saying:

In Tokyo, we now have quite a few incubator-supporting co-working spaces and incubation offices here in Tokyo.

Real estate developer Mori Building has also been in the game for a while, with a membership program for a shared library and coworking space in the skyscrapers of Roppongi Hills. Again, Tony Bacigalupo:

They are the boldest attempt I’ve seen at merging library with coworking. And the location we visited is perched on the 49th floor of a big office tower. And they’re huge.

Existing cafes and restaurants have also started to cater to this segment. @elm200 tweets about a branch of the 45+y.o. mega-chain Renoir Cafe, which offers free wifi and power chargers to customers.

うーむ渋谷桜丘のルノアールの癖に客が多い…つかルノアールって数年前よりずっと流行っている気がするのよね。内装もきれいにしたし、ノマドワーカーを始め、PC を使うビジネス客をうまくつかまえている気がするね。

Hmmm, the Sakuragaoka branch in Shibuya is really crowded, even though it's a Renoir cafe…!? Now that I think about it, Renoir is much trendier than it used to be. The interior decoration has improved and it feels like they've succeed in getting the patronage of business people using laptops, starting with nomad workers.

Because of the nature of the open communication, there is a lot of information online about it. The Facebook group sees active exchange of information about different spaces and events. People are constantly sharing their discoveries on nomad working, as can be seen by @TakuyaKawai's tweet:

マクドナルド六本木ヒルズ店1階はノマドワーカーの超穴場。ﾎﾞｿｯ

Hey, the McDonalds on the first floor of Roppongi Hills towers is an untapped haven for nomad workers.

The affinity with the Internet doesn't end with sharing information. On the Japanese crowdfunding platform Campfire, co-ba recently raised funds to start their space, while Jelly Jelly Cafe procured decent chairs with a project [ja] called “Save Our Ass”.

p_co-ba2 from campfirejp on Vimeo.

The relaunch of the mutli-social media client Crowy was a direct fruit of connections and collaborations:

Today's big refresh happened because of a fortunate encounter this August. Another developer, Yuya Yoshida met designer Yutaka Fujiki at Open Source Cafe Shimokitazawa and became connected. They started collaborating on Crowy together from August, also involving other coworking place participants as beta testers and source of feedback.

Kenji904 recently set up shop in PAX Coworking, the space adjunct to Paxi House. While coworking spaces are normally associated with freelancers, he opened a Tokyo sales office for his Aichi Prefecture based company that offers printing services for cloth material.

He explains his reasons –

・情報の最先端は東京にあるし、規模が大きい
・ITやWEBの知識がこれからは必ず必須になる
・競合から奪うのではなく、新規事業や新規業界を創る事が大切
・デザイナーやWEB業界などとコラボレーションは重要

- The speed and quality of information in Tokyo is the best, and the scale is incomparable
- Knowledge about information technology and the web is becoming indispensable
- It's important to focus on creating new businesses instead of fighting with competitors
- It's important to collaborate with designers and the web industry

– and his take on the idea:

何気なく自分の求めているゆるい人との繋がりを産み出してくれるのがコワーキングスペースなのかなと思っています。リアル版のゆるい繋がりをうむSNS的なイメージです。
そこにはその場所のマスター的なカタリスト（触媒）の人がいて、最初はいろいろ場所を形成してくれています。なので、初めて参加しても、何となくみんなが受け入れてくれるような場所の雰囲気が出来上がっています。
そして何回か行くうちにそこにいる人みんながそれぞれ触媒になっていく感じを最近感じています。

Coworking spaces enable the casual relationships that we are unconsciously searching for. I think of it as the real world version of social network services.
In each coworking space is the space catalyst, who is like the head bartender. S/he shapes the culture of the space in the early stages, leading to a welcoming atmosphere for all newbies. By the time you've gone there a few times, everyone evolves into a catalyst in their own right.

Japan: We're Losing to Apple, and Here's Why

Chris Salzberg — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:56:52 +0000

When IT consultant, author and developer Isseki Nagae titled an October 11, 2011, post on his blog “Why Japanese manufacturers keep losing to Apple, in the words of Steve Jobs” [jp], he probably knew he would draw some flak for it. Many of those who came to the post through Hatena, where it was bookmarked over two thousand times, no doubt expected to find some insights from the former Apple CEO on what is wrong with the Japanese electronics industry. With the iPhone finally making major inroads into the local mobile phone market, and Samsung stealing the spotlight from Japan's legendary gadget-makers, these insights are much in demand.

The post, though, wasn't exactly what its title seemed to imply. Instead of the words of Steve Jobs on the topic, the post was an opinion piece by Nagae, supported in part by things Steve Jobs had said in other contexts.

iPhone in Japan (by Flickr user nobihaya)

Nagae sets the backdrop:

トヨタ、ホンダなどの自動車メーカー以外の日本のメーカー、特に黒モノメーカーが海外メーカーに全く太刀打ちできなくなったと言われて５年くらいもたつが、ウォークマンで世界を凌駕したソニーをはじめ、IT関係、家電系は特にその兆候が痛々しい。ネット上でいろんな討論があるが、要は現在の日本の家電(特に黒モノ)メーカーはマーケティング力がめちゃくちゃ弱い、ということは間違いないように感じる。シャープのガラパゴスの惨敗なんてそのいい例だ。

About five years ago, Japanese manufacturers — and particularly consumer electronics manufacturers — hit a point where they simply could no longer compete with overseas competitors. The only real exceptions to this are car makers such as Toyota and Honda. Companies like Sony in contrast, which dazzled the world with the Walkman, and others in the IT-related and consumer electronics sectors, face a dire situation today. While there are a lot of discussions about this online, I don’t think anyone would deny the extreme weakness of Japanese electronics manufacturers in marketing. Sharp’s Galapagos disaster [ref] is a good example of this.

理由として挙げられる最大のものは、「素人の顧客の意見を聞きすぎる」ということにあるのではないかと考える。いい方を変えるならば、素人のユーザーの意見に左右されるのはいい加減にした方がいいということでもある。まあ日本のメーカーの経営者自体が素人に近いので、こうした資料が無いと開発にゴーが出ないのかもしれない、というのが最大の問題ではあるのだが・・。本田宗一郎やソニーの盛田昭夫さんが懐かしい今日この頃です。いまの日本のメーカー経営者ってみんなサラリーマンで、出世が上手くて上がってきた人ばっかりだもんね。

The main reason for this is that these companies put way too much emphasis on the views of the average consumer. The views of consumers should not guide decision-making. But executives at Japanese manufacturers don’t know better themselves, so they won’t give the go-ahead on anything unless they’re sure of what consumers want. What happened to the days of Soichiro Honda [founder of the Honda Motor Company] and Akio Morita [co-founder of Sony]? Executives at Japanese manufacturers today are nothing but salarymen [ref] — every one of them got there by working their way up the corporate ladder.

昔から大手広告代理店などでは「リサーチ」「顧客調査」「ヒヤリング」などのもとに多額の予算をとって調査をかける。実は自分もけっこう参加したことがある。大手代理店にはユーザー集めてミーティングさせて、メーカー担当がこっそりそれを見るマジックミラー張りの部屋まで用意されているし、世の中には女子高生を集めて商品企画するような会社もあると聞くが、これで本当にヒット作を企画出来るのかと言えば、自分もジョブズも全く必要ないと思っている(神と自分を同じ扱いですみません)。実際、ユーザー集めてのミーティングの場にいたことも何度かあるが、たいしたアイデアは出たことがない。

Large advertising companies have long invested huge sums of money in conducting studies based on research, customer surveys and interviews. I myself have participated in such studies. At the big advertising agencies they round up users and market to them as reps from the manufacturing companies watch, sometimes through one-way mirrors. I’ve heard of some companies that go so far as to base their product planning on the opinions of schoolgirls. Will this type of planning seriously result in a hit product? I don't think so, and (not to put myself in the same category as a god, but) neither did Steve Jobs. I’ve actually been to many of these marketing focus groups, and I can tell you that no great ideas come of them.

Nagae then cites two well-known quotes from Steve Jobs. In the first, Jobs responds to a question about market research for the iPad (of which there was none):

It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.

The second, from a 1998 article in BusinessWeek, echoes the same sentiment. Jobs explains:

It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.

Nagae concurs:

まったくその通りだと思う。素人の消費者にリサーチして、彼らが欲しい(と思われる)ものを作っても、彼らは全く別のものを買う。それが今の日本の黒モノ家電だ。
試しに「どんな携帯電話が欲しいか」聞いてみたらいい。

Exactly. You can try all you want to research what consumers want, make exactly what they (think they) want, and they will go and buy something completely different. That’s what’s happening with Japanese consumer electronics today. Try asking these consumers what kind of mobile phone they want.

絵文字が打てる、メールが片手で打てる、ワンセグは絶対欲しい、防水がいい、おサイフ機能は必須、いろんな機能が付いていると楽しい・・・ETC・・・結果が世界に通用しないガラケー戦隊ですよ・・・

They’ll say they want emoji [ref], they want to write email with one hand, they absolutely must have 1seg [ref], oh and the device must be waterproof, and work as a digital wallet, and they'll ask for all kinds of other neat functions… and what you get is another forgettable Galapagos gadget that the world will just ignore.

そう答えた消費者が、ワンセグもなくお財布もなく入力もしにくいiPhoneに殺到しているのである。これは何故か。つまり、素人の客に聞いて、彼らがどんなものが欲しいのか忠実に作っていく方法は、まったく無意味ということなのだ。素人が考えつかないようなものでないと売れない。

Consumers who said they wanted these things then flood to buy their own iPhone, which doesn't have 1seg, doesn't work as a digital wallet, and doesn't allow easy data input. It's a complete waste of time to listen to consumers and produce exactly what they want. If you want to make something that sells, you have to come up with something that the average person could never even conceive of.

Later, he draws parallels:

つまり、本当の商品企画というものは、独善的に「ユーザーに思いつかないような斬新なコンセプト」が閃めくような人しかできないということです。ラーメン屋でもケーキ屋でもパソコンメーカーでもこれは同じなんです。日産が復活したんだって、絶対売れないといわれて生産中止になっていたフェアレディZをカルロス・ゴーンが再開発したからじゃないですか。Facebookだってザッカーバーグが独善的に機能を詰め込んでいまのかたちになったから世界を支配した。極論をいえば顧客の意見なんて聞く必要は無いのだ。顧客にスゲエ、と言わせれば良いだけの話です。

The only people who are really capable of product planning are those with the insight needed to imagine new concepts that the average user would never even think of. It’s the same whether it’s a ramen [noodle] shop, a cake shop or a PC manufacturer. Nissan made its comeback when Carlos Ghosn redeveloped the Fairlady Z — a car which had been discontinued because people said it wouldn’t sell. Facebook would never have dominated the world the way it did without the features that Mark Zuckerberg crammed into it. This may sound extreme, but there’s really no need to ask the user for their thoughts at all. If at the end they say it’s amazing, then that’s all that’s important.

Responses to the post were mixed. KoshianX:

これはソフトウェア開発をするとすごくよくわかると思う。お客さんの要望をそのままきくとたいていダメなシステムになってしまう

For anyone in software development, this really rings true. If you build exactly what the customer wants, you get a useless system.

munioka303:

意味が分からないエントリ。素人顧客の意見が反映されてるの？誰かワンセグ欲しいって言ったか？Appleが勝ってる理由はそんな事じゃないよ。こういう嬉々として「ジョブズ語録」とかやっちゃう人を大量生産できたから

What nonsense. Do products reflect the opinion of average consumers? Did anyone actually say they wanted the 1seg? These discussions aren't related to why Apple is winning. They're winning because they've managed to produce loads of people who will gleefully recite the “gospel of Steve Jobs”.

And raitu:

だから日本メーカーっていうか世界中のメーカーがApple一社に負けっ放しなんだっつうの。自虐大好き日本人もそろそろ見飽きてきた。

Look, it's not just Japanese manufacturers, it's all manufacturers that are losing to Apple. I'm getting sick of these Japanese who love nothing more than to put their country down.

But perhaps the most interesting thought in the post appeared in the comment thread, where Nagae sums up the situation with a comparison between Sony 30 years ago and Apple today:

その昔、ウォークマンの時代はウォークマンのステッカーを貼ってる車もいました。今でもAppleのステッカーを貼ってる車はけっこういますよね。でもいまやソニーや東芝のステッカーを貼ってる車なんて営業車以外いません。「自分はこれのファンである」とユーザーが堂々と公言できる作品を創っているかどうかで考えれば、間違いなくAppleにメタメタにやられていると思いますよ。

Way back then, there were cars with Sony stickers on them. Today, there are cars with Apple stickers on them. But try finding a car with a Sony or Toshiba sticker today — only company cars driven by sales people have them. Can your company inspire people to proudly proclaim themselves a fan of your products? When you think about it that way, it's pretty clear that Apple is wiping the floor with these companies today.

Ukraine: Crimean Tatar Language on Twitter

Veronica Khokhlova — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:40:01 +0000

Hirano Takaci (@hiranotakaci), a Lviv-based photographer and teacher of the Japanese language, has recently launched a Twitter bot - @ukr_crh - that posts Ukrainian words/phrases and their Crimean Tatar (Qırımca) translations. “The thing is, I've been searching but haven't found any Ukrainian-language books about the Crimean Tatar language,” he explained [uk] on Twitter. “People would like to learn, but it is hard to find. And this is sad.”