Japan Reflections: Wrap Up

The motherload. I've been putting off this post for quite some time, thinking of when I should allocate a dedicated session to type everything out. I wanted to do this wrap up justice, and make sure I covered everything that needed to be covered. But ultimately, I realised that the "perfect" time will probably never come if I just kept procrastinating. I just really needed to get down to writing this, and see how it pans out. It may not be perfect, but at least it's something, so here goes...

Over the course of the trip, I haven't only been sightseeing. Sure I love the awesome scenery and totally admire it. But really, Japan is so much more than that. There is just so much to love, so much to respect and admire. I just want to soak it all up. But my naturally analytical side just kicks in on it's own. Throughout the trip, I have been analyzing how thing's are in Japan, everything. It is inevitable, that I will draw parallels and make comparisons with what we have in Singapore. Spoiler alert: it's not even close.

But I find it hard to just talk about random pieces like that. Just to go in chronological order is not very helpful and a total disarray. The thing is, there is so much to analyse that it is both daunting and overwhelming. In fact, in just my short time there I already have so much to analyse and talk about. Imagine if I actually spent time going about exploring and seeking out more! So in order to partition my analysis more neatly I have come up with, off the top of my head, 5 main categories of things I want to talk about. They are: PEOPLE, CULTURE, TECHNOLOGY, SERVICE and FINESSE. The list is in no particular order, and is most certainly non-exhaustive. There are just too many angles to look at it, and these are just some of the things I noticed. So let's go!


PEOPLE
The first thing I have to say about the people, is damn they look good. Of course, I say this with a bias eye towards females, but the males some look alright too, didn't take much notice. Now, I know in terms of asians probably Koreans look really good too, but there is one major difference. Japanese look good naturally, or with makeup at most. Koreans look good through plastic surgery, and aren't actually all that attractive naturally, on average. I could be wrong, but that's my opinion. And the important thing I want to highlight is EFFORT. They all bother to dress up or at least put some basic makeup before heading out. Even the so-called 'fat & ugly' ones, look decent enough when they are out and about. If I had to compare with Singapore, we are an average of 3 out of 10 for the typical person, and they are an average of 6 out of 10. That's how big the disparity is.

Of course, I would be remiss of my duties if all I did was 'analyze' their looks like a superficial bimbo. There are other deeper factors to admire about their people. For example, they are really dedicated and hardworking, at least for the workers that I saw. In most places, they are very kind, polite, helpful and very respectful. I was surprised when we managed to get help from some helpful locals when we got lost. And as you have seen in my photo, they are quite obliging for photos. I think the major trait that struck me is dedication. They do give a shit about stuff, and will kindly do more.

On a more strange note, the Japanese love their idols. And I mean that with a capital LOVE. What I mean is not just pop idols and superstars. Even like cartoons, anime, or really just any characters. If you have some sort of successful character, you can spin it off into a super big franchise. Just look at the people who went to Disneyland, Pokemon Center and Puroland. They are super supportive of all their idols, and will literally buy any product that is branded with them. It's a great business opportunity, but also a rather interesting and peculiar fact. I'm really not sure why this is the case, but I suspect it comes from their deeply rooted culture of respect. I dunno, may need to analyze further in future. All I can say is they are super supportive.

When you talk about talent, Japan has no shortage of it either. Perhaps due to having a much larger country, the talent is not as polarising too. It can range from anything like music, to arcade games, to other wierd passions. They are just super hardcore passionate and talented at it. Like with a dedication you can't imagine. I suspect this comes partly from their japanese pride which can come all the from back in the samurai days. Don't laugh, it's just a stray thought. But seriously, there are real fanatics who are crazy immersed in unheard of games, artforms, and hobbies. And if you talk about anime, no other country can even compete with Japan on the animation front. Their industry is just so mature and advanced that it's impossible to even be on the same level as them.

I guess overall, I can say I just love the Japanese people. You could say that I haven't fully comprehended the ugly side of their society. Truth is, I have heard murmurs that I can't confirm for sure, but the positives are more than enough to convince me that they are AT LEAST way better than Singaporeans. And I should know Singaporeans pretty well. The looks, the respectfulness and politeness, the immense dedication and devotion, and the diversity of talent and interests. Just their behavior, mannerisms and attitudes. It just all appeals to me to want to live there and experience it all. If I had the guts to make a super brazen and reckless decision, I would say I want to settle down in Japan. Have a pretty Japanese wife, and have Japanese kids. Of course, the people aspect alone is not enough for me to make this decision. I say this considering all the following factors too. Sadly, I don't have such guts at the moment. It's a really huge leap of faith!


CULTURE
Do I even need to say? They have a long history and deep culture rooted in traditions. I would admit, that I do not understand enough of their culture, tradition and customs to fully appreciate. However, even with what little I know, I am in admiration of how rich their culture is. For example, all the temples, folklore, cultural ceremonies, traditional festivals, kimonos, etc etc. I am sure these is way more than I know.

What I mean to say is, it is very admirable that such a truly advanced nation still grately embraces it's roots. When you look and compare with Singapore, the situation is very different. We are a young nation with a migrant population that is heavily influenced by foreign cultures. What you get is a country with no real culture and identity. There is nothing really strong, unique and special that defines us. Well, not anything I can be proud of at least. Japanese culture is well known even abroad, and people respect and appreciate it. It's just not the same you know. And really, it's not our fault, it's just the situation we are in. Nonetheless, it's just noteworthy that we as an 'advanced' nation have no identity. It's just something I've always felt we should work on and do better at. I mean, it doesn't directly helps us in P&L, GDP or any economic statistic, but it goes a long way into defining who we are and building pride and loyalty. Stuff that the I am sure has deep impact on the nation. Just sayin.

But enough about Singapore, back to Japan. Another noteworthy thing that I noticed, is that their culture is already totally embracing games! I mean aside from all the Pachinko around, there are numerous arcades like Taito Station all over the place, which is an industry that is dying in Singapore. But besides that, they also have loads of creative game-shows of all sorts of varieties on TV, and the participants are always supportive and rule-abiding. Let's not forget that they kinda created the Sega Saturn, PlayStation and GameBoy. My sudden realization when it all fell together, is that their culture and attitudes are deeply compatible with games, and it has already be rooted and embraced by them for a long time. This is an interesting thing to note because, I have been saying lately that our culture is just not ready for gamification yet. Heck, even games in general are frown upon and not taken seriously.

What I believe, is that games can change lives, and it can certainly transform businesses. If I were to seriously take gamification big scale and spin it into my own company, I would say my best bet for success is to go for the Japanese market. I'm not sure if this is possible in Singapore yet. Mindset wise, we are definitely not ready. Lifestyle wise, we just don't have the time. Students and workers are all so busy and occupied with their own work to even care enough. It may work on a certain small scale, but I'd say it's immensely difficult. So, yet another reason to move to Japan eh? Haha.


TECHNOLOGY
In terms of technology, Japan is clearly quite advanced in that area. I believe they had super fast internet before we started adopting broadband. Nowadays, the gap has closed as most of us has move to fibre. The advantages of a small country is the ease of infrastructure setup. But I do want to talk a lot more than just the infrastructure thing, which by the way is a much greater challenge for them with a bigger country I must say.

Oh I know, let's talk about the railways. We don't even need to talk about bullet trains, they've had it for ages, and SG is finally thinking about doing it. Copying is the greatest form of flattery eh. Bullet train aside, have you seen their railway system?! It is so comprehensive and insanely well planned out with great coverage. I mean, I wish I had the time to go explore it in depth. Unfortunately I was stuck with the tour bus most of the way. And to think of it, I think they started having this long long ago. Back when SG was still planning their MRT system. No surprise where the inspiration came from. It sure takes a great amount of foresight and planning to design and implement such a complex system. AND be one of the first to do it. Respect.

Also, have you checked out their hotel toilets? They have this interesting innovative toilet bowl add-on called the Washlet. If you know, many of the uncles in SG like to wash their bottom after doing their business. The japanese saw this need, and created something innovative out of it. This Washlet not only keeps the seat warm, but includes a feature to wash your ass with warm water after you're done! Ladies can even make use of the additional Bidet feature for a more holistic wash. Interesting huh! And it does not require much modification of existing bowls. You can just retrofit it to your existing system and enjoy the added features. Wonder when SG will copy and start importing these. Would like to get a couple to try out in my house.

The other thing I noticed, is that Japan has a vending machine for EVERYTHING! Like I mean that seriously, you name it they got it. Firstly, they have beer in vending machines, which is already a win. Then I've seen like ice-cream vending machines, hot food/drinks, instant noodles, toys, gashapon, soup, tea, calling cards, etc. And the machines is not the typical sort you see in SG. They have their own advanced version, some even with a mini TV screen to show ads. It all feels so elaborate and advanced.

Dude, they even have vending machines in shops and restaurants. Where do you think the QB/EC haircut concept came from? Basically, you go into the ramen shop, place your order and pay through the machine, and then pass the slip to the kitchen to prepare your order, then self-collect. You know what? Japan probably has labour problems too, just like Singapore. Not many self-respecting young kid would wanna be stuck working in a ramen shop all their life. Honestly, it's hard to find service staff nowadays, let alone good ones. So what do the Japanese do to solve this? Innovate. Automate. If we can replace the need for more workers with machines, we can cut cost and make things more efficient. Typical kanban type thinking. How does SG solve this problem? Well, we just keep importing more foreigners to pick up our dirty jobs! Sure, an argument could be made that a human touch is more preferable for the service industry. But if you look honestly at the service quality... Would you rather have bad service? Or self-service? I think a case could be made for the latter, by empowering the user and enabling greater personalization. I really see this direction as what we should look to do in the future, and I hope we can curb this over reliance on foreign labour.

But what I'm getting at it not the specific cases of innovative Japanese technology. No, rather I am attracted by the culture and amount of innovative talent in Japan. Every problem is a business opportunity, a technological opportunity, a chance to make everyone's lives better. And they see it. We clearly don't see it that way. Innovation cannot be forced, taught, or incentivized. It is deeply rooted into the environment and culture of a society and it's people. To build such an innovative culture requires a fundamental shift in mindsets across the board. Something that our factory-based education system cannot do. Not at the present time at least. And THAT, is the difference that draws me to want to work in Japanese technology firm. Sure, Japan is certainly not the only innovative country. In terms of the top 2, I would put the United States right up there with it. But they are quite different in many ways. Japanese like to innovate in terms of productivity and efficiency because, if you haven't noticed they are very very busy people. Americans innovate more in the creative realm, like art and design and just new creative entertainment and consumerism. It's 2 distinct but complementary forms of innovation.


SERVICE
Talking about technology brings me right back to Service. For all the machinery and technology that Japan has, they are still required to have regular service staff just like any other country. And in fact, I wanna say that they are no slouch either. In terms of service, I would rate Japan as among one of the top in the world. Definitely way ahead of SG for sure. They are at least 5 to 10 years ahead of us in terms of service standards.

And I say that from just my short experience there. I didn't even take the time to go and scout out the places with exceptional service. It's just damn good on average and consistent across the board for all the places I visited. They will all greet you when you enter the shop, and thank you and bow when you purchase staff. In fact, bowing is a big part of their culture, even if it's not the "full-on" bow that the older generations may do. I mean, whether it's genuine or not is not the question, but at least they take the effort to still do it, and that alone is respectable enough.

There are 2 instances where I was rather impressed with the service staff. The first was at an arcade where we were blowing money on the UFO Catcher machine, which incidentally they pioneered. When I finally won that big Brown bear plush, the guy walked over with tambourine and all to congratulate us and help us collect our prize. It's not a lot, but these small differences really improve the service experience. Even if the actual game I was playing was operated by a machine, inserting the human element at the right time can be rather effective if done right. The other one was at a Starbucks in Kobe, right beside Chinatown. We were looking at the Starbucks tumbler and were at a lost on how and what to order. The kind lady walked over to try to assist us. Unfortunately we couldn't speak Japanese, and she kind of noticed. Immediately, and to my great surprise, she switched to English to help us. And it wasn't even the normal broken English type. It was fucking American accent type English. Awesome shit. Instantly sold me right there. It's more like she was in the right place at the right time, but you can see still the sincerity of the help provided.

In fact, everything is a service to them. Whether they are selling a product or doing traffic duty or driving a bus. It's all the same and the need to provide a good service stands. And that's their strong suit. It doesn't matter what their job is, they take pride in it. I look at the traffic police greeting everyone in the morning, our bus driver diligently helping us with our luggage, the sales staff helping me get shoe sizes. Each one of them take their role seriously, and do them to the best of their ability. There's really nothing inferior or undesirable in doing those jobs. It's just that society looks down upon them, which in turn makes them feel less empowered to do their jobs with pride. This in turn also drives people away from the job, hence creating a vicious cycle of job resentment and labour shortage. It's unhealthy and unsustainable. I think our government recognizes this, and is starting to encourage employers to use more fancy titles like "Bus Captain", to appoint these jobs. But I certainly think way more can be done to change the mindset of the people.

I mentioned an important point on technology. We can and obviously should leverage technology where possible to curb our reliance on foreign labour. However, cutting the density of human interactivity also magnifies the potency of each touchpoint of human interaction. And unless we get our act together, and start training competent and highly dedicated service staff, I fear it may all fall apart. Imagine, you have a mostly automated business and a customer encounters a problem. Imagine, that the service staff is approached and successfully pisses off the customer. Then imagine again, that particular staff is on duty the whole day. How many people's experience has be ruined? And it's not like the customer had a choice, there was only one touchpoint to go to. When you look at it like this, the importance of service quality in an automated environment becomes more apparent. Following the same vein of thought, I truly believe that almost anything we do could use with a little more automation. The caveat, is that we must tune the business model to leverage on this automation to provide a unique service experience, rather than just a dead self-service kiosk. This is the so called "turn adversity into advantage" type of scenario. Many ideas are bubbling in my head. Or rather, I've had these ideas of years now, but time and experience has given me a stronger perspective on this. Perhaps one day I'll finally make the entrepreneur jump.


FINESSE
Lastly, to round it out I shall talk about Finesse. Because it just sums up everything right? If I had to use one word to describe our differences, this is it. In terms of people and culture, there is not much of a fight. Their people are just that much more stylish, dedicated, and cultured. The country has a rich heritage and tradition that spans many years, something we cannot hope to achieve. In terms of technology and innovation, they have us beat as well. Japan truly are pioneers at innovating in many technological areas, with only the US as equal competitors in this front. Many of the things we do and adopt, I daresay, is practically just copied and adapted from what Japan has been doing all along. They are the true innovators and trailblazers. In terms of service quality? It's not even close. Service quality in singapore is complete trash. In fact, most of the time I'd rather have self-service here. In Japan it's way different, and the service experience there is top notch stuff. It's just the dedication that makes that extra difference.

And all these factors, and more, culminate in a level of elegance and finesse that I am in admiration of. They just speak my language in terms of standards of excellence. So, are we truly an advanced first world nation? Sometimes I begin to wonder. Sure, wealth and GDP are great economic indicators that help distinguish richer nations and poorer nations. But seeing the standards that I observe in Singapore today, are we so really pretentious that we can declare ourselves as an advanced nation? I honestly don't think we are there yet. In all fairness, much of it is beyond our control, and some efforts are already in place to work on these various areas. But it's simply not enough, and way more can be done. The major difficulty I feel, is not about the processes, policies and technology. It's about the mindset and culture of the people that drive their behavior. However, part of this is largely impacted by the fundamental concerns of our society. Naturally, these concerns include cost of living; education; housing; etc. If Singapore wants to reach the level of finesse that Japan has, it needs to tactfully tackle these issues whilst not forgetting about the culture and image of the country. Honestly, my assessment is that we are quite many years behind. But it can all be possible if the right directions are taken by our leaders and our people.

And if it isn't, perhaps one day you'll find me as a Japanese citizen. ;)