# Why are the Japanese so tech friendly? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 26, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-japanese-so-tech-friendly/226066 "2004-01-26T00:33:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Madness2MyMethod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Madness2MyMethod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madness2MyMethod)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-japanese-so-tech-friendly/226066/21 "2004-01-26T17:46:44Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Did you miss this part? > > Also the article is out of date. On a modern Japanese computer you can type an entire sentence using Roman (English) characters and let the program convert it into the appropriate combination of Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. The program uses context, sentence structure and past history (i.e. it remembers which words you commonly use) to choose the correct characters. It works amazingly well. No, I didn’t. But did you miss this part: > [@](#): > > This is just Chinese we’re talking about. Japanese, now . . . they say Japanese is really complicated. Sad to say, we do not have space to discuss it here. Just get down on your knees and thank G-O-D for the A-B-C’s I don’t doubt that technology has advanced enough to make the process easier, but the transition from Japanese longhand to touch typing seems more tedious than English longhand to touch typing. That’s my guess. The benefits are obvious, but like I said, the process seems tedious. Now then, having said all that, I wonder what it’s like for a Japanese-speaking person to write computer software? Here’s a picture of a Japanese keyboard: [http://www.datacal.com/s\_images/Japanese-Keyboard\_l.jpg](http://www.datacal.com/s_images/Japanese-Keyboard_l.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-japanese-so-tech-friendly/226066/22 "2004-01-27T03:50:42Z")
> [@Madness2MyMethod](#): > > I don’t doubt that technology has advanced enough to make the process easier, but the transition from Japanese longhand to touch typing seems more tedious than English longhand to touch typing. That’s my guess. Well, it’s not, really. I say that as someone who types in Japanese everyday,sometimes more than in English. As a matter of fact, it’s _a lot_ easier to type Japanese than it is to write it longhand. The process is not tedious at all. You just type the words as they’re pronounced (the characters you see on the keyboard you linked to are phonetic signs) and the software fills in everything for you. > [@](#): > > I wonder what it’s like for a Japanese-speaking person to write computer software? People here use the same computer languages everyone else does, C, Java, Fortran, Smalltalk, whatever. No difference. Text output and comments are written in Japanese, of course, but again _inputing Japanese in a computer is easier than writing it by hand._ That’s it. ---
**Author:** ![Vaeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Vaeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vaeth)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-japanese-so-tech-friendly/226066/23 "2004-01-27T04:32:26Z")
No one’s mentioned this yet (so maybe I’m way off track :p) but here’s my take on it. I feel that one of the contributing factors to why Japanese are so tech friendly is due to the pervasiveness of manga/anime in their culture. We are talking about a culture here who is totally in love/inspired by their sci-fi comic books, to the point that it is perfectly normal for men aged 50+ to be reading manga/comics on the train on their way to/from work. Just about every Japanese person, male or female, since the end of WWII was brought up on manga. So, today, Japan has scientists, engineers, programmers, and CEOs who were all brought up on this manga culture who of course now, would like nothing more than to see their dreams/fantasy come to life. I don’t think that I am far wrong to say that one of the ultimate dreams/goals of many Japanese is to see a real-life, operational “Mobile Suit Gundam” unit. It is this vision/dream of seeing futuristic gadgets come to life that I think contributes greatly to why Japanese are so tech friendly. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-japanese-so-tech-friendly/226066/24 "2004-01-27T04:47:07Z")
> [@Vaeth](#): > > No one’s mentioned this yet (so maybe I’m way off track :p) but here’s my take on it. Actually, I kinda did in my first post. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-japanese-so-tech-friendly/226066/25 "2004-01-27T15:39:01Z")
> [@jovan](#): > > 1999: 37.7% > 2000: 50.5% > 2001: 58.0% > 2002: 71.7% Wow, that’s a rather startling increase. OTOH, it doesn’t actually invalidate the argument that high gadget use may be due to low computer use, since high gadget use is a longer term trend then this. I wonder if the gadgets are trending down now? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-japanese-so-tech-friendly/226066.md?page=1)