Just back from a quick trip to Japan, I thought I'd write up some thoughts and observations about the trip from a technology point of view.
All told, Japan is a far more technologically integrated country than any other I've visited. Much of this integration is borne from necessity (population density) and through organic processes (what originated as an electronic money system for the railways has morphed into a general e-wallet accepted at many points of sale).
Transport: technology in transport includes automated ticket machines, turnstiles which recognize both of the major electronic wallet formats (which are also embedded in mobile devices), extremely precise timetable execution, conductors carrying wireless, touchscreen ticket verification systems which are integrated with the carriages themselves (when they've verified your ticket, the light above your seat indicates the verification).
In addition to the Japanese side of the trip, traveling on Canada Air was a pretty up to date experience. The 777 had USB and socket outlets on each seat. The touchscreen entertainment system was available for use at the gate (I was already 30 mins into a movie before we took off). On the downside, the video watching experience appears to have morphed into an advertisement pushing channel from which you had to literally look away to avoid given that the screen was only inches away from your face.
Entertainment: all of the consumer electronic stores I visited in both Akihabara and elsewhere were full of 3D TV offerings from all the major flat screen manufacturers. The Sony Building in Ginza (which I understand is to be closed down in the near future) was transformed into a 3D aquarium with all of the floors featuring 3D technology and amazing videos of coral reefs, sharks, etc. Some TVs are boasting the ability to recognize the emotions of the human face, but I couldn't quite figure out what they were doing with the results!
Mobile Devices: I live in the Seattle area which is probably a very biased sample of the US in terms of mobile device use. On the bus I take to commute, iPhone adoption is extremely high, as is Kindle and iPad use. In Japan, with a quite different sample of observations on public transport, iPhones were far less prevalent - passengers tending to use the type of device with a physical keyboard. In addition, I only spotted one iPad (and that in the lobby of a hotel) and no other type of reading device. The Japanese have maintained the original form factor of the pocket paperback book (i.e. a paperback book you can actually fit in your pocket) - and that was still clearly popular. Public telephone kiosks seem to be disappearing (though nothing like to the extent in the US).
Search Engines: no-one has heard of Bing, or the fact that Microsoft has a search engine. It was big news when the Yahoo! Google partnership was announced while I was there (Yahoo! Japan is not the same company as Yahoo!). Google is running billboard advertisements for its browser (Chrome).
Tech Corporations: Two well known corporations in Japan (Rakuten and Uniqlo) have or are switching to English as their official corporate language. This is a pretty interesting change and highlights their international ambitions.
While technology is a big part of Japanese culture, much of it is used to support something that can't be packaged and automated - high quality customer service. The dedication and attention to detail one gets as a consumer or traveler in Japan is incredible and often not related to the amount one is paying.
Nice post! Just one addition. As far as I know, there is a lot of book-reading (specifically novels) on mobile phones. Maybe this justifies the absence (even in tech stores) of e-readers.
Posted by: Nautilia | August 03, 2010 at 03:24 PM