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.
