Quote:
Originally Posted by GoNative
One of the interesting things regarding technology though is that I find the use of technology in Japan to be way behind many western countries. Very few of my Japanese friends have a computer with internet connected at home. Of course they use their keitais for internet access but mostly only for social networking stuff. Many of the Japanese staff I've worked with have not been very computer or internet savvy at all.
Banking here seems almost like 20 years behind in terms of using technology. Finding a Japanese bank that has good internet banking systems isn't overly easy. The use of credit and debit cards is still in it's infancy. ATM's still actually close on public holidays!
Japanese offices are often still mostly paper based offices. Many of the computer systems that are used are so old that many modern applications and software can't be used on them. I've still seen many places using DOS systems and dot matrix printers! I know of quite a few large hotels in my area still using written ledgers for reservations rather than any booking software. Many businesses I have had to deal with still require you send faxes rather than email. Hardly any government agencies are interlinked. You have to duplicate changes of any details with every agency.
Anyway point is that as much as Japan is often viewed as some high tech wonderland, in reality in many parts of the country they are barely at what we were back in Australia some 15-20 years ago.
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The "Japan" you describe is very different from the one I see in Kansai. Most of the people I know (under the age of 50) have Internet. There are some that don't, but even if they don't have a computer at home, they are wired through their phones.
Credit cards in their infancy? I have been using credit cards for 20+ years in Japan. I can only remember one time I had trouble, and I think the problem was my CC company, not the store I was buying a game console at. That was in 1995, I think. Since then, no problems whatsoever.
I agree, Japan is a paper based business society, but things aren't that much better here in the US. They are getting better, here, and maybe at a faster rate. It's hard with the fax machines, because Japan was a culture where EVERYONE has a fax machine, even at home. In the US it is almost unheard of to have a fax machine at home. (20 years ago they thought we were behind the times in that respect, I bet).
You cannot pay bills, buy a meal or a can of soda using your cell phone in America. You cannot pay your bills at a convenience store here. I recently had a Japanese guest and he was surprised we didn't have a heated toilet seat.
So there are all kinds of different ways of looking at who is "ahead" and who is "behind".