TI20151122

TI④ Boy：top, efficient, convenient and holy Girl: intelligent, novel, flexible and objective Boy: Welcome to the column of Tech Info. I’m Johnny. And yeap, some of you might notice that my partner has changed again and you are right , this week we have a brand new guest hostess Shirley. Welcome Shirley and Shirley please introduce yourself to us. Girl: Hello everyone, I am Shirley, a technophile majoring in Agro-forestry economy management. Boy: Thank you for joining us tonight and welcome again. And by the way ,since I have known Shirely for over a year, I can say that Shirely is a beautiful, talented and rich small pricess. The most important, she is also a single dog. Girl: Thank you so much for inviting me to share something about technology with everyone. Start talk freely on Japan’s technology. (talk about high technology in Japan) Boy: Wow, since we talked a lot about hi-technology in Japan, I would like to ask you a question Why Japan is still using cassette tapes and faxes? Girl: Oh,really? If so, that’s really weird. Could you please tell me something? Boy : All right. Let’s come to today’s topic to make a deep analysis in why Japan is still using cassette tapes and faxes. Boy: Summary Japan has a reputation for being fascinated by robots and hi-tech gadgets - a nation at the forefront of manufacturing innovation. But the technological reality in many offices is strikingly different. This is a country that uses people to do the work of traffic lights and where big-name companies running 10-year-old software is the norm. There are even tape cassettes for sale in the ubiquitous convenience stores for office use, along with fax machines - remember them? Even tech visionaries like Sony still use a fax. "Japanese companies generally lag foreign companies by roughly five-to-10 years in adoption of modern IT practices, particularly those specific to the software industry," says Patrick McKenzie, boss of Starfighter, a software company with operations in Tokyo and Chicago. "The pace of development is glacial. "It's a curiosity for any observer of a country that developed the world's first contactless payments system; the Bullet train; and the Sony Walkman. You can pay for things with your phone in Japan, but nobody really uses their e-wallets here; ditto for Skype in the office, or other now-ubiquitous cloud storage tools, such as Dropbox. Yet Japan has some of the best internet infrastructure in the world. Girl: Bureaucratic But even some bigger, modern global firms seem mired in digital backwardness, although finding people willing to go on the record about the phenomenon is difficult in a culture where devotion to one's employer is the norm. "Eventually you accept that a company whose pride is its cutting-edge tech image makes employees use an email service that looks around 1997," goes a recent anonymous tweet from an employee of a well-known blue chip Japanese technology firm. Speaking to the BBC on grounds of anonymity the tweeter - Twitter handle The Hopeful Monster - revealed more about his company's paradoxical attitude towards office technology." For email and internal communication we used an engine, which was text-only, and we were allowed a minuscule amount of server space, so deleting and/or transferring old emails because your allotted space was full was a near-monthly activity." Burning data onto discs and delivering them through the post, accompanied by a data submission form "filled out by hand," was encouraged by managers. And when software updates or the adoption of collaborative tools like Basecamp and Dropbox were suggested, management spurned them, he maintains. An "overzealous approach to problem prevention was typically to forbid new software from being installed," he adds. Boy: Hand-written faxes Yoji Otokozawa, president of Tokyo-based IT consultants says Japan Inc. is poor in digital literacy because small businesses, not multinationals, rule the country. "You have to understand how SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] dominate the Japanese business landscape," he says. SMEs account for 99.7% of Japan's 4.2 million companies, according to Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. So the world's third biggest economy is driven by minor establishments, not the giants everybody knows outside of Japan. These SMEs are often conservative, if not downright Luddite, says Mr. Otokozawa. "They usually use postal mail, or fax for their communications. We sometimes receive a fax, written by hand which means such firms don't even use word processing software like Word."created by Microsoft. Girl: Remorselessly conservative If such alleged behaviour is typical, it could explain Japanese firms' productivity crisis, says Rochelle Kopp, founder of Japan Intercultural Consulting, an international training and consulting firm focused on Japanese business. With one foot in Tokyo and another in Silicon Valley, she says: "US workers are much more productive because they have access to the best technology - the US is at the technological frontier." Japan's failure to ditch its analogue habits and go digital means its "companies are losing out on productivity boosters," says Ms Kopp, who used to work in a large Japanese firm for several years. "Japanese IT departments are remorselessly conservative and hate to connect their computers to the outside world. They fear data theft and hacking, which also makes them fear abroad." One female office worker in a global logistics company in Tokyo - again speaking on condition of anonymity - says: "Japanese hesitate to use anything new in the office." She says the attitude tends to be "vincible ignorance" - what Aldous Huxley described as "not knowing because we don't want to". Consequently, Japan's non-manufacturing productivity, despite the long hours worked, is the worst in the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)countries and roughly half that of the US. Boy: Humans not robots As Martin Ford, author of Rise of the Robots points out, the more advanced your IT, the more likely it is to replace you. So despite the tech-loving public image, much of corporate Japan seems intent on circling the wagons against automation and using people rather than machines wherever possible. After all, those faxes don't pick up themselves. Such overstaffing may help keep the country's unemployment rate down at 3.4%, but it also keeps productivity down, too - not to mention entrepreneurialism. Whether such an approach can stave off the rise of artificial intelligence, robots and automation in a world moving from a commodity-based economy to one based on intellectual capital, seems unlikely. But corporate Japan seems intent on trying. Boy: Next part, Let’s see how people from on the web all over the world see about this phenomenon. Girl: Okay, As samesongtwice said: “I work for one of the largest staffing agencies in Japan. I still have to fill out my timesheets by hand and fax them to the head office.” And toma819 said,” I think a lot of the problem is demographics, as many in Japan's aging working population are completely computer illiterate. The younger generation gets it, at least from what the learn on their own or in college. Many older Japanese though have little or no experience with computers. Even typing was non-existent or ancient in their generation.Have you ever seen a Japanese typewriter?.And then the computer boom in the 80s-90s was smaller here than what we had in the states. But so long as the corporate structure is based on seniority rather than merit, Japan won't be upgrading anytime soon.” Boy: LaserOstriches conclude the noticeable technological disparity for three major reasons: • First off, recycling is a huge thing here. There are huge stores and entire chains devoted entirely to second-hand goods. As you may assume, many of the things that show up there are older models/mediums. When there is excessive of cheap replacements for something like a fax machine they must think it's too much effort to change the system. • Second, simplicity and seniority. These two go hand-in-hand. The simpler something is for the older folks the more they are going to use it. • Third, like the article says, most businesses in Japan are small and locally owned usually by the elderly. If you ride your bike down any city road in Japan you will count a ridiculous number of businesses tucked into every little nook and cranny. Sometimes the business counter in what looks like an shop from the outside is just a wall separating the "shop" from the rest of someone's house. Girl: After a thorough analysis in this phenomenon, I think it is reasonable for Japan to use cassettes and faxes today because of the large amount of SEMs [small and medium-sized enterprises] and the majority of old people. Boy: Yes, I’m totally with you. Since our topic is too complicated , Let’s make a summary for our listeners and the main points are: 1. Japan Inc. is poor in digital literacy because small businesses, not multinationals, rule the country..."The hub of the matter is that you have to understand how SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] dominate the Japanese business landscape," And SMEs account for 99.7% of Japan's 4.2 million companies. Girl: 2. "Japanese IT departments are remorselessly conservative and hate to connect their computers to the outside world. They fear data theft and hacking, which also makes them fear abroad." Boy: 3. As Martin Ford, author of Rise of the Robots points out, the more advanced your IT, the more likely it is to replace you. So despite the tech-loving public image, much of corporate Japan seems intent on circling the wagons against automation and using people rather than machines wherever possible. Girl: 4. Such overstaffing may help keep the country's unemployment rate down at 3.4%, but it also keeps productivity down, too - not to mention entrepreneurialism. Boy: So next time if you see cassettes and faxes in Japan, do not be surprised. And since time is limited , it is time for us to say goodbye to everyone. Girl: How time flies!It is a pity that I must say goodbye. Ultimately,it is my pleasure to share a lovely night with Johnny and everyone. Thus,Goodbye! Boy: Okay, let’s thank Shirley again! And if you like our column, please refer to HZAUERSTATION on wechat and we are expecting you. Boy&Girl：See you next week.