PSX5Central
Non Gaming Discussions => Off-Topic => Topic started by: kokopuphz on April 11, 2002, 05:20:49 PM
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I\'d like to hear some opinions on Japan. Especially from people who\'ve actually lived in Japan and worked in Japan and stuff like that.
My main reason for this is that I was born and raised in the U.S., and now I currently work and live in Japan, and I\'ve been having lots and lots of issues with the way people work here.
Basically this post is going to be about me going on a rant about how the Japanese working environment is screwed up and stuff like that, and how I don\'t expect the Japanese economy to recover in the least bit in the near future.
First off, I\'d like to say that no one in this country wants to make specific decisions about anything. Whether they\'re afraid to make decisions or whether its simply something built into their nature, it just doesnt make sense. I\'d be working in a project, and a decision about something darn important has to be made, yet no one, especially the manager, wants to make the decision about how to go about the project and stuff like that, and everything is so vague.
Second off, the people I\'ve been working with, they seem to like to have a bunch of meetings which never result to anything. Almost everyday, for at least 2 hours, I\'m sitting in some meeting, and every single stinkin meeting the same things are said, yet nothing seems to progress. Everyone seems to like going in circles, and absolutely nothing gets resolved in the meetings.
Third, no one has any sense of creativity or originality in this country. Basically I\'m working on a project where we incorporate a certain system into a certain big named company, and we\'ve been asking the customer about their thoughts on the new system we\'re about to incorporate and what kind of additions and customizations they\'d like to see in the system. We get some results of what the customers want, and then we simply add exactly what the customer wanted into the system. Ultimately this may sound okay, but what the end product looks like is simply a mess of a system which no one can actually use because no one stopped to think whether those additions were necessary, whether there were other ways to do the additions, and no one ever thinks about making the system logical and easy to use. If the customer brings up a certain idea, then no one stops to think about how that idea should be incorporated into the system, and what kind of changes should be made to make things easier to use and simply better. I dont get it in the least.
I dont get it. This country was supposed to be known for their brain power and stuff like that, yet once here, I find that no one here actually has a brain. Everything that could be done in a day takes at least a month to complete, and I\'m completely surprised that anything actually gets done in this country.
And everyone here is in lala land. Everyone seems to shy away from reality, and seems to be in their own little world, thinking that things are going great. No one here seriously thinks that the economy is that bad, and no one seriously thinks that anything bad is going to happen to them. They simply blame everyone else.
Specific examples would probably be nice, so here\'s my example. The Japanese government is currently has a bunch of scandals going on, and people are getting fired left and right. This in a sense is a good thing because you\'d figure that all the corrupt government officials will eventually get filtered out, and that all that would be left would be the good officials. But there are fundamentally two problems with these scandals.
First off, scandals and corruption in the government did not simply start recently. Its been an ongoing issue since about 10 years ago, and it seems that almost every month, someone new is under the microscope. Once that official resigns from his/her post, a new scandal breaks loose, and someone else eventually resigns. Its an onoing issue for over 10 years, and nothing has really been done about it. No one ever stopped to think why such scandals are occuring. No one ever stopped to think how these scandals could be avoided. Instead, they just scratch on the surface, and never really deal with the core of the problem.
Which is the second point I wanted to bring up. The rules and regulations in the government are absurd. Recently a representative was forced to resign. The government had been giving her group a lump amount of money to pay for her secretaries, however she was found guilty of holding back a certain amount from her secretaries and was using that money to fund many of her government activities such as campaigns. She had not been reporting this fact to the government, and supposedly this is against the law here. If simply looked at, she broke the law, and she has to pay for it, yet no one addressed whether the law she broke was something that was a) necessary, and b) realistic. No one stopped to think if the law could be re-written so that people like her don\'t have to do such things to fund her campaigns.
There is no sense of checks and balances as there is in the United States, and there is no judicial branch which examines laws and examines the reason why those laws were originally stipulated, and whether she broke the law against the reasons that it was originally stipulated.
No one wants to make changes in this country, no one ever wants to look at the root of things and make sound suggestions as to how things could be better, and all everyone does here is simply rant and complain about issues and problems, but no one ever does anything specific to change and problems. Simply put, nothing ever gets done in this country, whether it be in the government or inside a corporation.
I love this country, I love the products which this company has given, yet having lived here for close to a year now, I find that I don\'t love the people that live here, and I definitely don\'t follow their train of thought and the procedures they use to try to accomplish tasks.
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Originally posted by kokopuphz
Second off, the people I\'ve been working with, they seem to like to have a bunch of meetings which never result to anything. Almost everyday, for at least 2 hours, I\'m sitting in some meeting, and every single stinkin meeting the same things are said, yet nothing seems to progress. Everyone seems to like going in circles, and absolutely nothing gets resolved in the meetings.
Sounds like corporate america to me :D
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Serious? That\'s not good news, cuz I was planning on shippin myself back to the states in a couple of months :confused:
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Perhaps I should make a thread regarding my opinion on every foreign country i lived in....
I have a belly button.
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Originally posted by Vapor Snake
Perhaps I should make a thread regarding my opinion on every foreign country i lived in....
I have a belly button.
or perhaps you just make yet another useless post as usual.
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Originally posted by Vapor Snake
Perhaps I should make a thread regarding my opinion on every foreign country i lived in....
How many foreign countries have you lived in?
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Yeah well, America\'s got a lot of f*cked up problems too. We may make quick decisions and press forward.. but alot of times we\'re too quick to take action and end up screwing things up even worse. What ends up happening, is that the mistake is pinned on some low level functionary who gets the brunt of the punishment (Termination) while the people actually screwing up only have to deal with finding some poor new sap to promote to the rank of ScapeGoat.
First off, scandals and corruption in the government did not simply start recently. Its been an ongoing issue since about 10 years ago, and it seems that almost every month, someone new is under the microscope. Once that official resigns from his/her post, a new scandal breaks loose, and someone else eventually resigns.
Geeze.. sounds like the American government too...
Aside from food, maybe the US and Japan aren\'t so different afterall?
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Originally posted by SonyFan
Aside from food, maybe the US and Japan aren\'t so different afterall?
You know, I\'m actually starting to think so too. Yes the Japanese and the Americans seem to do a lot of things differently, but neither way seems to be working all that well. Both sides have all kinds of problems.
The original reason why I decided to work in Japan was because I didn\'t like corporate America all that much, and didn\'t like all the stupid laws and regulations they ended up making, which although made for good purposes in the beginning, end up being interpreted differently in the court of law.. Simply by lawyers and stuff like that. Funny thing is, I come here and it\'s all basically the same story. Society these days... Figures.
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It\'s because of cultural differences. I\'ve studied this a bit in an econimics class, but it\'s kinda hard to translate (and I didn\'t really think about it that much). But if I can find some litterature and easily translate it, I\'ll give you my views on the difference between, say USA, Japan and some poor country. It\'s quite interesting actually. :)
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Hey kokopuphz, in what part of the States did you grow up in?
As for the topic at hand I have never had the opportunity to get over to Japan but I have been to Mexico and just being there has made me glad to live in the States. I know The USA is a bit screwed up as far as priorities go, but it has its good points too. I won’t go into detail ‘cause I would end up writing a book.
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Originally posted by kokopuphz
First off, I\'d like to say that no one in this country wants to make specific decisions about anything. Whether they\'re afraid to make decisions or whether its simply something built into their nature, it just doesnt make sense. I\'d be working in a project, and a decision about something darn important has to be made, yet no one, especially the manager, wants to make the decision about how to go about the project and stuff like that, and everything is so vague.
Weak incompetent managers are like that IMO, they dont\' want to make a decision, for fear of fukking up, and getting fired, etc...
I had a manager like that, couldn\'t stand em, he just said and did the same thing, and waited for others to commit to a certain technology/or programming solution. He did not want the responsibility, but he was always the first to biatch about how something wasn\'t working etc... You have these situations everywhere, not just Japan.
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well ive never been to japan, but i would love to go!!!!!!!!!!
dont ask me why, but i would.....my bro has been he said it was very cool, but its very expensive!!! best of all they got the world cup there this year!!! when my bro went (re2 was just come out in japan) he said they had ps1 in the street, and you could play them!!!! woot
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Now I have an excuse to post this link!
http://www.theonion.com/onion3813/japanese_student.html
;) I love the onion!
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Who needs creativity? It\'s not like making American things smaller is particularly difficult.
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Originally posted by kokopuphz
How many foreign countries have you lived in?
Four.............. 3 in Europe, and 1 on the border of Eurasia pretty much...
luckee, your just jealous you don\'t have a belly button.
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Originally posted by Troglodyte
Now I have an excuse to post this link!
http://www.theonion.com/onion3813/japanese_student.html
;) I love the onion!
I know the lady went a bit overboard, but hey, better too much hospitality than none at all right?:p
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I want to go to japan, around june sort of time.
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Originally posted by Vapor Snake
Four.............. 3 in Europe, and 1 on the border of Eurasia pretty much...
luckee, your just jealous you don\'t have a belly button.
so where you live??
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Thanks for the insightful post koko. I have a friend in the navy who is stationed in Japan and he pretty much tells me the same stuff about cultural differences. Not so much in the corporate workplace, but how everyone is in their own little world as you pointed out.
He also says there are no open roads when you can just take your car and go on a scenic cruise or enjoy nature, I found that really funny after seeing all these animes with all the nature backgrounds with the slow music playing. I thought they were nature lovers but I later found that not to be true for a number of reasons.
I also have a few pics he sent me about Japan, I\'ll make a thread about em soon. Very funny :)
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this will be helpful in Japan.
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~AD8Y-HYS/movie.htm
I dont even know where to start with this one.
(https://psx5central.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theimageworks.com%2Ftoilet%2FEDR0485M.JPG&hash=6b1744d7763fd39199fbf0b0560861787ca12e07)
Deluxe Toto automatic home toilet
with digital touch pad. Touch pad
controls bidet (temperature and
stream pressure), urination noise,
rear end washer, clock, etc. Toilets
in the showroom sell from $2
thousand to $4 thousand each.
Tokyo, Japan
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Originally posted by kopking
so where you live??
La Linea, Spain (Next to Gibraltar)
Pisa, Italy
Adana, Turkey
Kaiserlautern/Ramstein, Germany
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Originally posted by project86
Hey kokopuphz, in what part of the States did you grow up in?
I grew up near Los Angeles, and went to college in Irvine, both of which are in Southern California.
But yeah, when I used to live in Cali, there were a lot of things which I didn\'t like, all of which ended up being part of the reason why I came to Japan in the first place. But having been away, I started realizing all the good things there were to offer in the states which I basically took for granted.
Here\'s a few things I really miss:
1. Driving my car late at night down the freeway goin 120mph or so.
2. Carl\'s Jr.
3. NBA - Lakers!!!
Okay, so its not much of a list. Anyhoo, I was on the train this mornin (practically squished cuz of all the people that push their way into the train) and I realized one thing which is definitely different about Japan when compared to the states. Although I haven\'t been educated in Japan, I\'ve heard a lot about the education system, and one thing that they don\'t really teach you here is critical thinking. Everyone seems content with the status quo, and no one really seems to question authority. Given a specific problem, the Japanese seem to be able to solve it quickly, but when asked to find the problem, no one seems to have a clue. I mean, I know this is over exaggeration at the best, but it\'d probably be interesting to study the Japanese education system as compared to the American one.
Anyhoo, I\'ve decided that I don\'t really want to stay and work here too much longer, so most likely in a couple of months, I\'m packin my bags and heading stateside. But I\'ll miss the lower priced ps2 games here, the television shows, the good food, and the cheaper cigarettes, but definitely won\'t miss my a lot of other things.
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Third, no one has any sense of creativity or originality in this country.
No creativity? Are you insane? Its Japan the biggest gaming country in the world with its robots and strange games. They have plenty of creativity,.
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Originally posted by cloud345
No creativity? Are you insane? Its Japan the biggest gaming country in the world with its robots and strange games. They have plenty of creativity,.
Not really insane (yet), but Japanese are renown for their lack of creativity and originality. Most of their ideas are ones which come from abroad. They usually take ideas from abroad and add in their two cents to make it better. For example Toyota originally started off making sewing machines way back in the days. The original was simply a copy of one that was imported from abroad, and made it better. When Ford came out with the automobile, the Japanese jumped onto that idea and started creating automobiles, eventually making theirs better (in some opinions) than their American counterparts.
The same goes with the entire video game industry. The originals were the colecos and the ataris. Then came along Nintendo (at that time a company that created plastic coated deck of cards) and took the entire gaming console idea and improved on it.
Same with the robotics industry. Japan has never been an industry pioneer, and at this rate, they never will be. Go to any Asian Studies class in a college or university and they\'ll teach you that Japan will never have been, and never will be an economic leader because they have always been playing catch up. They wait until someone creates something, then improves on it. Cellphones, broadband network, etc. Cellphones here can write emails, browse web-pages, run Java applications, etc (the screens are hi-resolution, full color screens). The broadband network, which barely started up is now boasting 8mbs DSL and 100mbs optic fiber, both of which are relatively cheap when compared to America, who basically started the entire broadband IT revolution.
Hence comes to my other point. Japan has no leaders. Japan never really was a leader, and never really had a leader. Even in WW2, when Japan started going weirdo and began sending their troops into Korea and elsewhere, they never really knew who their leader was. Supposedly it was Emperor Hirohito, but he had absolutely no control over the military, and the military went off into Asia attacking neighboring countries. The people in Japan basically had no idea of what was going on.
Even today, the same lack of leadership can be seen. The government is in chaos. No one trusts anyone in the government to make any sound decisions. When employees drive their companies into bankruptcy, the president (although he had absolutely no power over anything that happened in the company) is forced to resign. Japan moves in herds, but there\'s no shepherd to lead the flock.
Japan is driven bottom up. It cherishes the group over the individual. Everyone tries to fit in, and if they don\'t, they\'re treated as a reject. Everyone dresses the same. Everyone drives the same car. Everyone wears a suit. Individuality, creativity, and originality are three things which, quite frankly in Japan, are not as important as being part of the group, following the flow of the world instead of leading it.
I forgot to state this though: You\'re right about the strange games. I dunno where the Japanese got the idea of flying around as a mosquito, taggin walls, driving a train... that list seems to go on.
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dood, i type way too much
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dood, i type way too much
nice read tho :) I\'m always interested in anthropology.