<story><title>Japan pitches &apos;Society 5.0&apos; to keep its edge in tech and science</title><url>https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Science/Japan-pitches-Society-5.0-to-keep-its-edge-in-tech-and-science</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>stopnamingnuts</author><text>I suspect I hit the sweet spot when I lived in Japan from 1993-1995 if I interpret your comment correctly. I remember being impressed by the tech. For example: ATMs into which one inserted not only a card, but also a transaction book which would be mechanically updated (versus spitting out a slip). I still have mine. We&amp;#x27;re talking about Japan so, naturally, my bank book features Snoopy prominently on its cover.</text></item><item><author>drstewart</author><text>&amp;gt;I think the state of digital technology is due to structural &amp;#x2F; hierarchical social reasons that these initiatives don&amp;#x27;t really address.&lt;p&gt;Maybe a trite &amp;#x2F; cliche saying now, but the quote about Japan being the most futuristic society you could imagine in the 1990s just rung so true after visiting.</text></item><item><author>alephnan</author><text>Bank ATMs in Japan stop working between 6-9PM, and on weekends.&lt;p&gt;My debit card got de-magnetized ( like a flaky hotel room key ) and stopped working at the official bank ATM. It doesn&amp;#x27;t work at most third party ATMs, but I&amp;#x27;ve found the 7-11 ATMs are quite robust and is actually able to transact. Seems like a weird security mechanism if the official bank ATM can&amp;#x27;t authenticate the card, but somehow 7-11 ATMs can bypass this and allow me to withdraw money.&lt;p&gt;The bank&amp;#x27;s website also has a very strange username &amp;#x2F; password rules. They can only contain numbers and letters, case insensitively. Also, you can&amp;#x27;t have more than 2 consecutive numbers or letters. For example, &amp;#x27;foo2bar&amp;#x27; would not be valid, nor would &amp;#x27;fo911baz&amp;#x27;.  &amp;#x27;fo23ba23&amp;#x27; works.&lt;p&gt;One of my friends in Japan is a doctor from Belarus, one of the poorest countries in Eastern Europe. She came to Japan thinking it was technologically advanced, and was shocked to find that in some aspects Belarus is more technologically modern.&lt;p&gt;I have a very cynical theory about why technology is seemingly archaic here. I think the state of digital technology is due to structural &amp;#x2F; hierarchical social reasons that these initiatives don&amp;#x27;t really address. Not directly related to the hierarchical constructs, but examples of traditional practices include:&lt;p&gt;- resumes must be hand-written&lt;p&gt;- the stack of paperwork you need to sign for an apartment is about 1 inches thick. If you&amp;#x27;re purchasing a property, you&amp;#x27;ll probably need a couple binders.&lt;p&gt;- you need to create Hanko ( personal seal stamp ) as your official signature for some paperwork</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cactus2093</author><text>I also lived in Japan in the mid 90&amp;#x27;s. I was a kid so of course my memory is probably pretty skewed and I have no idea about grownup things like ATMs, but I remember the tech being absolutely amazing. All the game consoles were Japanese (nintendo, sega, playstation) and often got releases first before the US. The arcades were incredible, I remember playing arcade versions of essentially DDR and guitar hero&amp;#x2F;rockband like 5 years before they caught on in the US. Cell phones also seemed to be a few years ahead of the US (back when flip phones were the rage and smaller was better). Complex vending machines were pretty common, e.g. making things like multi-step hot coffee drinks, I think it was probably a full 15 years later that I first saw one of these in the US.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s fascinating and also kind of sad to me how much less relevant Japan today seems to be as far as consumer tech goes.&lt;p&gt;Looking back, I also think a big part of it was Tokyo as a city just being on a totally different scale than anything else I had experienced. In the 90&amp;#x27;s I don&amp;#x27;t think there was anywhere in the US remotely similar to a place like Shinjuku. Now days I think parts of midtown Manhattan or perhaps in other ways the Vegas strip might have a little bit of a similar energy, but I had never been to either of those as a child, and back then they were much different than they are today anyway.&lt;p&gt;The ease of getting around by fast, reliable trains (and especially bullet trains) also seemed super futuristic to me back then. Of course that part is still pretty far ahead of the US to this day.</text></comment>
<story><title>Japan pitches &apos;Society 5.0&apos; to keep its edge in tech and science</title><url>https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Science/Japan-pitches-Society-5.0-to-keep-its-edge-in-tech-and-science</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>stopnamingnuts</author><text>I suspect I hit the sweet spot when I lived in Japan from 1993-1995 if I interpret your comment correctly. I remember being impressed by the tech. For example: ATMs into which one inserted not only a card, but also a transaction book which would be mechanically updated (versus spitting out a slip). I still have mine. We&amp;#x27;re talking about Japan so, naturally, my bank book features Snoopy prominently on its cover.</text></item><item><author>drstewart</author><text>&amp;gt;I think the state of digital technology is due to structural &amp;#x2F; hierarchical social reasons that these initiatives don&amp;#x27;t really address.&lt;p&gt;Maybe a trite &amp;#x2F; cliche saying now, but the quote about Japan being the most futuristic society you could imagine in the 1990s just rung so true after visiting.</text></item><item><author>alephnan</author><text>Bank ATMs in Japan stop working between 6-9PM, and on weekends.&lt;p&gt;My debit card got de-magnetized ( like a flaky hotel room key ) and stopped working at the official bank ATM. It doesn&amp;#x27;t work at most third party ATMs, but I&amp;#x27;ve found the 7-11 ATMs are quite robust and is actually able to transact. Seems like a weird security mechanism if the official bank ATM can&amp;#x27;t authenticate the card, but somehow 7-11 ATMs can bypass this and allow me to withdraw money.&lt;p&gt;The bank&amp;#x27;s website also has a very strange username &amp;#x2F; password rules. They can only contain numbers and letters, case insensitively. Also, you can&amp;#x27;t have more than 2 consecutive numbers or letters. For example, &amp;#x27;foo2bar&amp;#x27; would not be valid, nor would &amp;#x27;fo911baz&amp;#x27;.  &amp;#x27;fo23ba23&amp;#x27; works.&lt;p&gt;One of my friends in Japan is a doctor from Belarus, one of the poorest countries in Eastern Europe. She came to Japan thinking it was technologically advanced, and was shocked to find that in some aspects Belarus is more technologically modern.&lt;p&gt;I have a very cynical theory about why technology is seemingly archaic here. I think the state of digital technology is due to structural &amp;#x2F; hierarchical social reasons that these initiatives don&amp;#x27;t really address. Not directly related to the hierarchical constructs, but examples of traditional practices include:&lt;p&gt;- resumes must be hand-written&lt;p&gt;- the stack of paperwork you need to sign for an apartment is about 1 inches thick. If you&amp;#x27;re purchasing a property, you&amp;#x27;ll probably need a couple binders.&lt;p&gt;- you need to create Hanko ( personal seal stamp ) as your official signature for some paperwork</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jholman</author><text>Bank books worked like that in Canada in the late 80s or early 90s, yeah.  It&amp;#x27;s interesting what seems impressive.</text></comment>