There’s a certain, not entirely incorrect assumption about Japan that it’s some kind of futuristic wonderland. It’s true, it’s the birthplace of the camera phone and giant, glasses-free 3D TVs, cyberpunk-like TV billboards, ass-washing toilets, and soon, a maglev train capable of going 600km/h. Fish sauce vending machines, digital, music-playing rice cookers, self-heating bathtubs, a dizzying array of instant food, and ennui-filled office workers. What’s there not to love about humanity’s future?
So, I find myself wondering weekly how it is that home fax machines are still more common than home computers, paperwork is mostly filled out by hand and impossible to submit by email 90% of the time, and what’s up with all the ATMs with business hours? Because no one seems to have an answer (though when I pointed out the thing about ATMs to my wife, she realized it was hilarious). How on earth can a country known—rightly—as being on the cutting edge of technology, be so behind in so many ways?
The lack of home computers can be explained. People view computers as things you work on, and when you spend 70 hours a week at work the last thing you want when you go home is to look at another computer.
But then there’s email. People have email, but seem to not understand how to use it. For some reason it’s easier to fax a message to the department one floor below and wait for a fax back than it is to send an email. And video conferencing? I hear it’s finally becoming a thing, but there’s swarms of people every day flying from Hiroshima to Tokyo in the morning, then returning that afternoon. How is it that it’s never occurred to anyone that maybe there’s a more efficient way?
But, of course, it has occurred to them. It probably occurs to everyone involved in every half-day business trip, every poor shmoo who needs to deal with the copious amount of paper required for all those faxes. But what can any one person do?
I watched a show once a while ago where the host was interviewing random people on the street about what they thought of Japanese work culture. How men traditionally work long hours, sometimes six or even seven days a week, and women are pressured to choose between children and a career because it’s still widely viewed that it’s impossible to do both. It was all prompted by a news story about a growing number of single men looking for women with careers so they can be stay-at-home dads (aren’t I the envy of those guys?) Every person they interviewed said that indeed, it was discouraging, and no, it didn’t help the declining population. Most of the women said they’d like both a family and a job, and the men said they’d rather work less. Everyone agreed they should at least be able to take longer vacations without the workplace attitude of “when you’re gone we need to work harder” guilt that goes along with taking two weeks off.
And at the end of every one of their “Oh yes, it would be nice, wouldn’t it?”
“Shikata ga nai.” It can’t be helped. But I’ll get into that another time.