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submitted 1 month ago by moe90@feddit.nl to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[-] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Japanese people tend to make a big deal out of the “human touch,” especially when it comes to service, so I can see how companies aren’t jumping on to the hype. We’re also pretty slow to adopt change.

And that's pretty cool, seems like a culture best suited for modern challenges.

I've heard\read there are many racist, paternalist, hierarchical and collectivist traits, but at the same time Japan apparently hasn't hit those honeypots most of the humanity has.

[-] TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago

ugh. "collectivist" is a word coined by western chauvinists. that's not a real dichotomy. your fucking Abrahamic countries are far more collectivist than us soulless confucianists

[-] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

Depends on the point in time really. I meant "collectivism" in the bolshevik sense, the kind somewhat preventing horizontal mobility because why treat a person separately from their collective.

[-] Feyd@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

Weird how you say collectivist like it's a bad thing

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 1 points 1 month ago

I mean, one look at Japanese work culture should be all demonstration you need for that.

[-] rottingleaf@lemmy.world -1 points 1 month ago

It is. It replaces one's own choices with a collective's common "choice", and that is usually substituted with most loud and ambitious people's choice from inside the collective, or the voices that those from outside prefer to hear from it. Bad all around.

Mutual aid and brotherhood are not collectivism. The philosophy that a group of individuals can be regarded as a subject is, possibly without regard for the comprising individuals.

[-] RightEdofer@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

This is incredibly reductionist. Wow.

[-] rottingleaf@lemmy.world -1 points 1 month ago
[-] k0e3@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I’ve heard\read there are many racist, paternalist, hierarchical and collectivist traits,

We definitely have all that!

Also, I found it interesting that someone mentioned how you used "collectivist" as a negative feature of Japanese culture. While it certainly could be, it's actually nice to see when people are genuinely wanting to help each other. The problem is our hierarchical culture where some shitbag on top takes advantage of our collectivist mindset for their own gains.

*Everyone else is working unpaid overtime, why can't you?! *Almost nobody being worked overtime is going to say that. Workers will take it for the good of the imaginary "team" because some manager convinced them it's the right thing to do. Luckily, probably thanks to my Canadian upbringing, I've always been able to say no to ridiculous shit like this. That, and I work for myself, so the only ones who boss me around are my wife and kids.

Edit: Whoops, maybe collectivism isn't the right word for what I found to be positive after reading your other comment. Sorry, but I hope you got my point.

[-] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Well, yes, I got your point and also

We definitely have all that!

TBH sometimes it's better to have all that explicitly than implicitly and deny it, like most western societies do, because, well, a human society can't morally raise above the human limitations.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 0 points 1 month ago

And that's pretty cool, seems like a culture best suited for modern challenges.

I mean, looking at the Lost Decades it seems to be quite the opposite. Sometimes it helps to take things slow, but other times you really have to think "come on get on with the times already".

[-] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

Look at right now and consider that Japan still has something appearing to be a democracy. USA and the EU are in the "trade and denial" phase, countries like Russia and Turkey - the obvious, LOL.

That's because Japan isn't yet so compromised under the guise of progress.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 1 points 1 month ago

The only reason Japan isn't in the same boat as America and Europe (yet, far-right parties are slowly rising in popularity) is that they never got on the immigration train, so their population is mostly homogenous and there are few things for bigots to complain about. Of course, this came with a price; the dismal state of Japan's industry, academia and economy compared to other first-world countries is at least partially due to their rejection of immigrants. Of course, they can't keep this up forever, which is why they've been recently allowing more immigrants in, fueling the rise of the far-right. Unless they can change rapidly, what Japan is "enjoying" now is the calm before the storm. "Still has something appearing to be a democracy" is how the EU was described five years ago.

this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
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