Where has Japan’s high technology gone?

However, when I arrived in Hokkaido, I was dumbfounded. Except that the Jahuang Prince Hotel where we stayed could lend its guests conversion plugs, I went to all the largest electrical appliance stores in Jakob but could not buy the conversion plugs that I urgently needed. This meant that the laptop became the biggest burden on my trip to Hokkaido because I couldn’t do anything with it because it couldn’t be charged.

What’s even more incredible is that, except for the Prince Hotel, several other hotels we stayed in in Hokkaido did not have Internet access in the guest rooms! The Noboribetsu Hotel is a bit better. It only provides a coin-operated computer with Internet access in the lobby, but the fee is extremely high.

After returning to China, I consulted a lot of information and gradually realized that Japan is no longer what we imagined.

Japan is entering an embarrassing era of technology: the police station has no computers and uses 30-year-old cassettes to play "Green Sleeves". ATM machines suspend service when banks are open. Automobile engineering technology is heart-wrenching Suspicious, with kerosene heaters and no central air conditioning. This is a true portrayal of many places in Japan now.

The Japanese government, electronics industry and tourism industry have always vigorously promoted its high-tech side. Under the influence of this heavy publicity, most tourists may overlook Japan's low-tech side.

People are familiar with large international technology companies like Panasonic, but they do not represent all Japanese companies, only a very small part of them. In contrast, family-owned companies with bloated institutions and overstaffed companies account for a larger proportion of this depressed economy, and these companies are obviously branded with low technology and high prices. In the 2010 list of the most innovative companies published by Fast Company magazine, which focuses on business and technology, only one company from Japan was on the list, and it was a retailer.

Why does Japan lack technology companies with international influence? Some point the finger at the Japanese government's greater focus on the domestic market, as well as its low-quality, inefficient workforce and poor working environment. In addition, the digital divide is also an important factor.

Although the country has fast Internet speeds and some areas have some of the cheapest broadband prices in the world, many Japanese prefer traditional methods to embracing the Internet. The ratio of Internet users to the total population in Japan remains at around 70%. In comparison, this ratio is as high as 82% in neighboring South Korea. Moreover, Japanese Internet users are clearly divided into two groups. One group is extremely dependent on the Internet and cannot survive without the Internet, while the other group does not regard the Internet as an indispensable part of their lives.

A poll conducted by the Japanese government showed that 44% of Japanese use the Internet at least once or twice a month, while the remaining people said they basically do not use the Internet or do not use it at all. Considering that Japanese people over 50 years old account for a large proportion of the total population, many people will naturally not embrace the Internet. The proportion of Japanese people over 50 years old in the total population has reached 30, and the impact it can have has begun to appear.

At a discussion organized by Wired magazine 15 years ago, Nicholas Negroponte, head of the MIT Media Lab, warned Japan not to become a digital Areas of homelessness in the country. Japan’s refusal to become a digital economy in some areas means that Nissl’s prediction has come true to a certain extent.

Japan’s publishing industry is a representative example. For years, the industry resisted change, and only recently has there been a perceptible digital shift, with the rise of e-books. Some analysts believe that Japan will eventually find a way to make peace with the digital publishing industry. But the giants in the digital publishing industry tell us clearly that this won't happen for the time being, unless they have no other choice.

In other areas of Japan, this backlash has begun to conflict with key shifts brought about by high technology and globalization, and related initiatives have progressed more slowly.

Some commentators blame Japan's bureaucracy for hindering technological innovation.

Hideki Onda, a Japanese blogger, pointed out: The good days are over, but no one noticed this because no one informed us of the danger. We missed a golden opportunity to ignite the fire of innovation and keep it burning forever. Political problems and bureaucracy meant that the profits we made from the 1970s to the 1990s were spent on regional and socio-political food chains. Japan is currently unable to make a wise decision in terms of utilizing the spectrum vacated by television digitization. Things got messed up.