How advanced is Japan?

[Hiroyuki Nagashima]

Personal mobility "i-REAL"
TOYOTA


A guard of Central Japan International Airport (Centrair)
news

 

[Danny om]

Japan seems to be at the cutting edge on most things to do with civil tech (as opposed to military tech). Also, novel materials, especially reserch to do with battery-cells and other consumer energy solutions, Then you had Japans bid for the fusion reactor project (ITER). France got in the end, but I`m sure that was down to geo-politics (politricks). And they do have a credible space programme (UK, had.Bagel 2, a complete faliure by the way ) Overall, Its Japan which has the scope and the balls to take on post modern issues and at least explore the possibilities.
Compare Japan to the UK.....and it becomes quite an embarrassment for the UK. As noted in an earlier post; The country wide travel infrastructure.is kick ***. If you thought TGV was bad......then the UK is scraping its arsehole along ground like a dog with worms. :gohan::snore:

Please note that I`m talking from a perspective of a person who has not been to Japan yet...

 

[Dogen Z]

I have to say I'm a little disappointed in our "advanced" cell phone market. Docomo only offers HTC's Magic cellphone when many other countries including India already has the much better HTC Hero.

I'll forgive Docomo if it introduces Touch Pro 2 next month. I'm anxiously waiting for it.

 

[akaitsume1]

Japan has some of the most innovative and creative products ever...and yet banking can't be done online, and they won't sell a space heater that doesn't need an open window (propane heaters) or the ability to sleep through a bright orange light (carbon heaters) within their borders.

I have not figured this out. XD

I agree with cell phones, though. My Japanese cell phone was so advanced compared to my American one that when I came home I laughed at my friends' excitement over a new feature that Japan had standardized years ago.

Let me clarify: I have to update my bankbook by running it through an ancient machine that will print all of my transactions onto it...but I can pay all my bills at the local convenience store.

God bless any country, though, where small children are told to head for the nearest convenience store for safety if they got lost. In a lot of places in the US, if you told your kid that, you might as well have kissed them goodbye.

 

[akaitsume1]

This seems almost relevant: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/earthquake_sets_japan_back_to_2147

 

[Dogen Z]

I have to take back my previous complaint. The HTC Hero and Touch Pro 2 don't have the Felica chip that stores E-money. I like using my keitai to conveniently pay my train fares and convenience store purchases by just waving it over a scanner. I'll just have to wait for the Sony-Ericsson Experia 2, but that's not scheduled for release til next year.

As for heaters, most homes have the integrated air conditioner/heater w/multifunctions and remote control. Electric kotatsus are common, too, and most space heaters are electric, too.

Internet banking has been here for awhile. You can even do your banking on your keitai. Sony Bank is exclusively Internet banking (don't know which atm's it uses). 7 Bank is Internet banking with 7/11's convenience store atms. MUFJ Bank also has Internet banking along with its large network of atms. I would bet Mizuho does, too.

 

[akaitsume1]

I have to take back my previous complaint. The HTC Hero and Touch Pro 2 don't have the Felica chip that stores E-money. I like using my keitai to conveniently pay my train fares and convenience store purchases by just waving it over a scanner. I'll just have to wait for the Sony-Ericsson Experia 2, but that's not scheduled for release til next year.
As for heaters, most homes have the integrated air conditioner/heater w/multifunctions and remote control. Electric kotatsus are common, too, and most space heaters are electric, too.
Internet banking has been here for awhile. You can even do your banking on your keitai. Sony Bank is exclusively Internet banking (don't know which atm's it uses). 7 Bank is Internet banking with 7/11's convenience store atms. MUFJ Bank also has Internet banking along with its large network of atms. I would bet Mizuho does, too.

Hmm. Maybe it was just the bank in Nagoya that I was stuck using. They weren't very big on being convenient, but it makes sense that the larger chains are.

 

[Hiroyuki Nagashima]

"AIST"Advanced Industrial Science and Technology[/B]
AIST open laboratory 2010

Operation of Actroid-F

An Actroid is a humanoid robot and android with strong visual human-likeness developed by Osaka University and manufactured by Kokoro Company Ltd. (the animatronics division of Sanrio). It was first unveiled at the 2003 International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan. Several different versions of the product have been produced since then. In most cases, the robot's appearance has been modeled after an average young woman of Japanese descent.

The Actroid woman is a pioneer example of a real machine similar to imagined machines called by the science fiction terms android or gynoid, so far used only for fictional robots. It can mimic such lifelike functions as blinking, speaking, and breathing. The "Repliee" models are interactive robots with the ability to recognise and process speech and respond in kind.

 

[MadamePapillon]

But I wouldn't say that for other countries the technology isn't THERE, it's more that they're just not using it for that stuff.

This.

Talking vending machines and robot secretaries aren't out of the technological range of most advanced nations, it's just that there is no market for that kind of tech.

Japan seems to thrive on technology for the sake of technology whereas many people in Western nations view technology as a double edged sword (in that it often causes more problems than it solves).

To use cellphones as an example.
It seems like Japan is quite eager to jump on and implement new technology whether it's needed or not whereas in other countries too much tech is considered gaudy. And there's always the question of "why". Why do I need a fingerprinting, talking, 15 language capable phone with all those features when I'm not even gong to use half of them?
Plus there's a real apathy about trying to keep up with technology when, if you buy it, it's going to be obsolete practically the next year.

 

[MadamePapillon]

I'm not sure if anyone else has posted this but here's an interesting article on Japanese consumer technology focusing mostly on how and why they are falling behind the rest of the world even though they seem to be so much more advanced.

http://injapan.gaijinpot.com/2010/1...umer-electronics-and-what-it-means-for-japan/

Then there's the evolution of technology. In the past, Japan got by stuffing the fastest processor in new products. Although the hardware used in Japanese consumer electronics is still better than the majority offered by foreign manufacturers, the market has changed. The future lies not in hardware, but in software: things like GPS, applications, connectivity and a slick user interface, not in 1 billion megapixel cameras or in 3.2 GHz octo-core processors. Japanese firms have refused to adapt this new business model and have consequently taken multiple hits to their bottom line.