Why Japan Is Living In A Weird Retro Future

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🖖 Hey! I'm Enrico and on this channel I go behind the scenes of the design, psychology and stories behind tech and making stuff on the internet. I'm a tech Product Manager, builder of things made of pixels.

Japan's crazy history seen from my latest trip. From the Robot hotel and robot cafe and weird Tokyo with weird tech, to the senseless times Japan feels like it's in the 90s when it comes to digital technology.

[thefocuschic]

"Retrofuturistic" is actually a spot on assessment of Japan.
I do think there's more to dig about the reasons on why Japan is like that. Hardware and homogenity is part of the picture, I believe.

Anyhow, good quality work as usual <3

[tahirravat]

Nintendo and Sony managed to get a foot in with software, but it is an interesting observation that Japan prioritizes hardware. Nintendo keeps trying to innovate their consoles with unique Hardware gimmicks like the Wii remote and Sony is the first console to go to market with their own VR headset. Also checking out modern Games you will often see that their software design is weaker, user interface is often clunky, graphical fidelity never a priority.

[katmcdowellmusic]

As a singer songwriter who plays live in both Japan and internationally. It was interesting to see how much people would want to support me in Japan by buying my physical merch.

Whereas tipping musicians is quite common in the US, tipping musicians is non existent over there.

[stefanotobia]

I believe the underlying reason of Japan to be basically not interested in software is their massive consumism and the craving to build and accumulate physical things.. that probably stems from being a poor country in the past centuries, something we cannot say about US for example

[humanthetooth]

japan (and taiwan) are both heavy cash based societies mostly due to past experience with bank collapse and financial crisis. ordering things online is common and food delivery but if you are buying goods in person, or food, cash is preferred.

[ReviveHF]

Basically its like the Dune movie, everything is futuristic but advanced computers are not available.

[julian_online]

I feel like Japanese culture emphasizes fixing/improving what you already have rather than thinking outside the box

[bebebe]

You need to understand Japan first why is like this, (living here)
Japan's slower adoption of certain modern digital technologies can be attributed to factors such as cultural respect for tradition,
a high elderly population, the customary use of "hanko" seals for signing documents, a tendency for risk aversion in business,
the complexity of the Japanese written language (hiragana, katakana, kanji),
and regulatory requirements favoring older communication methods, some companies still using FAX machines!

Enrico you doing such nice researched intelligent videos but this one you missed or is not well represented.

[DanteVelasquez]

I'm surprised I was under the impression that Japan was way ahead of us for a long time when it comes to things like digital payments. I might be confusing it in my mind with South Korea in this respect.

[Dummigame]

One thing I like about this way of seeing the future is that your data isn‘t as easily used for all kinds of purposes without your knowledge, especially with credit card bank owners knowing everything you buy, including your onlyfans subscriptions.

[vidrogic]

"i'm from italy i've seen enough churches and castles in my life" loool 😂😂 As croatian where all of our tourism is based around churches and castles I totally understand you.

[peterm.]

Thanks for sharing your Impressions. really great work.
I've been in Japan around 1992. This has been one of my most impressive trips.
Even then, I found myself in a Hightech-toilet one day, the escalators told me to watch my step and when entering Shinjuku Station, I was impressed by the access gates handling hundreds of people per minute. At akihabara, I bought a Dat-Walkman from Sony, an Aiwa Discman and an optical cable - then being able to digitally copy music in my backpack. This was miles ahead of what Europe was doing back then.
In contrast to all this I was surprised by the low number of Japanese that were able to speak English and how they were sticking to old traditions in many areas.
Now watching your video 30 years later, I have the feeling that they must have had a sort of time-freeze there. Things don't seem to look much different now compared to the 90ies - only that the robots weren't around then. That's crazy.

[catpad]

Cache payment was really huge some 5 years ago but now electronic payment is everywhere in Japan. Dozens of types of electronic payments actually.

[thefailingstudent]

i was in osaka a few weeks ago, and in tokyo in 2019, i got around just fine using my cc. also mobile payments work in someplaces too like lawsons. yes the really local spots only take cash but more and more mom and pop shops are starting to accept cc payments. its not like the US where you can automatically pay with credit card, you have to tell them you are going to pay with card or show them on your phone the mobile payment.

[RokkitGrrl]

This is one of the reasons why I was shocked that Sega threw in the towel in the console wars and stopped making any game hardware after that to focus on software. I can't see Sony doing anything like that.

[ZbeastVIP]

I love Japan. I went for the first time in January 2024. I can definitely relate to the sentiment of futuristic retro. Very efficient hardware, but stuck behind when it comes to software integration. I had the pleasure of meeting a fellow American who lives in Japan as a software engineer and seeing his insights on the impact that the Japanese culture has on technology was fascinating

[salihawouda]

8:08 Goes to a foreign country, expects to see diversity 😑

[enricotartarotti]

CHALLENGE: Whoever films a more shaky and voltage-flickery clip than the one in the intro gets ¥1, 000

[theleastsignificantbit]

KORG creates the worst software for its synthesizers. It fails more times than it works. At work, we have a $2, 500 Yamaha mixer with NO Bluetooth—if we want to connect a phone or computer to play content it must be hardwired.

I understand that in some situations, a hardwired signal is preferred, but there is no option for Bluetooth.

When I was in Tokyo in 2010, no one one owned an iPhone or other smartphone. My friend who liveS in Tokyo and is Japanese explained that many Japanese do not own a computer—she did, but she explained she was exception. The need to sync smartphones with a computer was a large hurdle for Apple to make inroads into Japan.

Those flip-phones in Tokyo were sophisticated, allowing people to purchase items from vending machine or to pay for things at convenience stores.

I always imagined that Tokyo in 2010 was very similar to a big city in the United States in the 1960s—the futurism of the space race and Kennedy’s New Frontier tempered with rotary phones and large, heavy cars.

[ldrelick]

As an American, I'd much rather have something like high speed rail than say... airbnb. (Have no idea why that was used as an example)