: : : s p e c i a l r e p o r t
J A P A N
The Land of the Rising Sun... is rising again
[ photos by : David Fanning ]
Japan was one of the success stories of the twentieth century. Just over 150 years ago it was a closed society with little or no contact with the outside world. Since the 1600s the country had been dominated by a single family of Shogun feudal lords. In 1868 a new Emperor came to power who felt it was time that Japan joined the modern world. Faced with a long and ultimately self-defeating civil war, the Shogunate stepped down and handed power over to the Emperor who began a process of modernisation. The capital was moved from Kyoto to Tokyo and except for the ravages of World War II Japan has taken the fast track to prosperity ever since -- dominating 
global industries such as cars and consumer electronics. Now the question on everyone's lips is whether or not Japan can replicate this success in the Internet age.
Today, Tokyo is a high rise city of 12 million people with millions more commuting to work in the city every day. After years of the population dwindling the latest census figures showed the official population of the metropolitan area has started to expand again. An all time low in interest rates is credited with the rise in population with commuters moving back to the metropolis rather than facing two or three hour commutes every morning and evening.
Spend an evening in the centre of Tokyo and it's easy to see where Ridley Scott found inspiration for his seminal sci-fi flick Bladerunner. Viewed from any of the high rise hotels in the downtown Akasaka district the city appears to be pulsating electricity. To the east the skyline is dominated by the Rainbow suspension bridge and the docks. To the north west the corporate skyscrapers of Shinjuku reach for the sky, with the 250 metre high Tokyo Governor's offices towering above the rest. The predominance of high rise buildings 
gives the impression of a crowded city that teems with life 24- hours-a-day. Down on the street these impressions are reinforced. Except for some of the up-market shopping areas, which appeal to the local elite and the visiting rich, shops are crowded together and can stretch five or six stories above and below ground.
From the outset the impression is of a culture that isn't so much dominated by technology but one that has managed to integrate it into the fabric of its daily life while still respecting the old traditions. The local 24-hour convenience store is a staple of Japanese life and here you can pick up everything from energy drinks based on traditional herbal remedies (one of the most popular carries the rather unsettling moniker of Sweat) to CDs and other consumer goods that you've pre-purchased on the Net. During a show in the Ropongi neighbourhood which passes for a red light district in the ultra-safe metropolis that is Tokyo the dancers suddenly appear on stage dressed as mobile phones and start plugging NTT DoCoMo's iMode offering.
iMode is the Japanese answer to WAP -- delivering services such as banking, entertainment and news on the go. The crowd who are mostl
y made up of locals lap it up. The show is a cabaret style mix of old and new as local dancers (and one Australian) perform to an upbeat mix of traditional and modern, east and west, The Beastie Boys and Japanese folk music. There's hardly a dry eye in the house during a recreation of World War II which portrays US soldiers in a less than flattering light. However the finale is left for a pastiche of Riverdance which even features a slaughtering of our national anthem. This is a backstreet theatre but even here things aren't done by half and the hydraulics employed in the staging would put most Irish theatres to shame.
DoCoMo, which is a subsidiary of Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), has become the number one ISP in Japan, thanks mostly to the success of its iMode mobile phones. At the time of my visit it had over 6 million subscribers. Launched just over 18 months ago this makes iMode one of the fastest selling devices in Japan ever. It got to this level faster than the fax machine, PC or even games consoles. However, the PlayStation 2 which was launched in March could soon eclipse it.
Like WAP, standard Web sites have to be altered to make them accessible to users of iMode handsets. However the complexity of the task is much less with iMode as the pages are quite similar to traditional HTML and as a result individuals and companies are churning out iMode compatible content. Currently there are almost 400 official sites linked to the NTT DoCoMo portal page < http://www.nttdocomo.com/top.shtml > with another 4,000 unofficial sites created by private individuals. In addition to those using iMode there are approximately one million subscribers to WAP services on a 
new CDMA (code division multiple access) cellular network. Available WAP and iMode services include business news, weather information, train timetables, horoscopes and chat services. Most have a flat-fee pricing structure of less than a couple of hundred yen a month, between one and two pounds. That's in stark contrast to Ireland where WAP and other Internet access is subject to the running meter of access phone calls.
Another inherent advantage that the Japanese have in their use of wireless Internet services is due to their language. Because it uses pictograms rather than a Western style alphabet it is possible to send a relatively long e-mail message in only a few key strokes. The Japanese also seem much more versed in the etiquette of mobile phone use. During my five day trip I never heard a mobile phone going off in a theatre, museum or anywhere else inappropriate. That said your average Japanese business man doesn't seem adverse to whipping out his phone and checking his share prices as he travels on a crowded but always-on-time commuter train. All of this puts Europe's supposed lead in wireless technology into sharp focus. Europe may be on the bleeding edge of the technologies required for a ubiquitous wireless Internet. However the Japanese are already implementing it and finding out how consumers react to these services. They are already finding out what happens when a significant proportion of the population adopts wireless access. Remember that the next time you hear some excited developer tell you how the Europeans are set to kick American ass when the action in the Internet space moves to the wireless world.
Unlike Irish commuters, the average "salaryman" can enjoy one of the most efficient commuter rail networks in the world. Travelling on Japanese trains is a real eye-opener for your average Paddy. The first surprise is not just that the trains arrive absolutely on time. On each platform a series of numbers are painted so that you can form an orderly queue and ensure you can get on the correct carriage. The quality and cleanliness of the trains (and Japan 
generally) is also a revelation. The Bullet Train is basically like a plane that travels on tracks. There's even an in-train magazine and a jack in your seat that you can plug your headphones into and listen to the latest local and international music. All signage in stations and aboard the trains is in both Japanese and English, as are the news headlines which are scrolled across an LCD at the front of the carriage.
Western travellers will also be pleased to note that toilet facilities are also available in both Eastern and Western versions. However it's not just the Bullet Train that has such exacting standards. Even local express trains adhere to this strict regime. During my stay a story about Japanese Railway workers over-sleeping made the Japan Times. Apparently the sleepy workers didn't wake up at their usual time of 4 am to open Mito station. Instead the laggards awoke at 4.38, four minutes after the first train had passed through the station. As a result JR had to get taxis for six passengers to complete their journeys. It's a far cry from Iarnrod Eireann's Galway InterCity service arriving several hours late due to leaves on the tracks!
For your average gadget-lover one of the main reasons to look forward to a trip to Japan is the electric cities which have sprung up in practically every decent sized metropolis. The most famous by far is Tokyo's Akihabara which is where most of the international media coverage of the recent PlayStation 2 launch was focused. An electric city truly is heaven on earth for the lover of consumer electronics. Everything from fridges to flat screen plasma TVs, MP3 players to common or garden PCs are available here. Outside of Tokyo and Osaka most of the goods on sale are suitable only for the domestic market but if you don't mind purchasing a voltage converter and struggling with Japanese instructions there are bargains a plenty to be had here.
Even in a smaller city like the ancient capital Kyoto, the shops south of Shijo-dori are crammed with goods that we only dream of being able to purchase in a comparable Irish city like Galway. Given the cramped living quarters of the typical Japanese city dweller all-in-one PC models and other space saving devices are particularly popular. I was particularly impressed with one Sony VAIO desktop PC which crammed all the elements for a true home entertainment centre into one box. As you'd expect it featured a DVD ROM player which also doubles up as a DVD Video and CD player. But it also had a MiniDisc drive, FM tuner and TV card. Add to this video editing capabilities, impressive speakers, a Pentium III 600 MHz processor, 20GByte hard drive and a handy remote control for running the whole thing from the comfort of your living room armchair. Not bad, especially with an asking price that's equivalent to just less than two thousand pounds.
During our visit the PlayStation 2 video game console was launched to eager Japanese consumers. In all but the smallest towns all available units were sold out on the morning of the launch. In fact most retailers seemed faintly amused at a group of English and Irish journalists arriving into their stores in mid-morning and expecting to be able to pick up a console. The original PlayStation has become the most successful video game system ever produced. It also holds a special place for Irish consumers as this country has the largest per head of capita ownership of PlayStations outside of Japan.
However with the PlayStation 2 Sony is looking at much more than the video game market. It ships with a DVD ROM drive and USB, PCMCIA and Firewire ports which creates a range of possibilities for what this box can possibly be used for. Unlike its competitor Sega, whose Dreamcast system provides dial-up Internet access through a 56Kbit/sec. modem, Sony has said it sees its online strategy being in the world of broadband. Speaking to the Japanese media on the weekend of the launch Ken Kutaragi outlined a vision of broadband gaming in the not too distant future where 22 different PlayStation 2 users could log onto the Net and race against each other in their very own Formula 1. What's more interesting though is that Sony 
is making noises about the console being a home entertainment centre. They deliberately steered away from education and other non-core gaming software with their first console in order to attract the fickle 18-35 market but this time around games, education and communications applications are all likely to get a look in. By having industry standard connectors (USB, PCMCIA and FireWire) Sony is likely to attract plenty of third party hardware and software developers who want to piggyback on Sony's massive marketing muscle.
The Japanese are also giving e-commerce their own unique twist. Current estimates from the Japanese government indicate that there are 22 million people online with the figure set to swell to 58 million by 2003. Currently most access tends to be at work with just 11% of households being online. This bias towards access in the work place is one of the factors that accounts for the popularity of local convenience stores for fulfilling online orders. Open 24 hours, chains such as 7-11 proliferate in Japanese cities and are part of the fabric of local life. Many sites are partnering with convenience stores as a way to fulfill their orders. With many Japanese spending long work days at the office it makes sense to be able to pick up online purchases at the local shop. 7-11 and the other chains aren't blind to their unique position and are announcing a range of alliances with Internet companies.
However, it's not all plain sailing for Japan. The country is still trying to pull itself out of its worst ever recession. Interests rates are at an all time low but despite this many young professionals can't afford to purchase a home or are just not willing to saddle themselves with 40-50 million Yen (310,000 - 390,000) of debt in order to purchase a cramped two bedroom apartment in Tokyo.
The large Japanese corporations still yield incredible power and are quite capable of causing government policy u-turns. The Department of Health recently tried to impose a target level for smoking in the year 2010 but was forced to withdraw it due to pressure from one of the large tobacco companies. However, given the media coverage that resulted the corporations would have been better off saying nothing the government target would never have been so widely reported without the quick turnaround.
:: A leap of faithSurprisingly, Japan was also one of the few countries to suffer from the leap year bug on February 29 last. An automated system at The Meteorological Agency failed to function properly and sent out incorrect data. The postal service was particularly badly hit with over 1,000 automated teller machines for savings accounts failing to work thanks to a problem in the ATM network. Registered letters showed the wrong dates and incorrect interest rates were shown on screens in post offices. Some seismic observation systems also showed the wrong date but still functioned correctly.
Although the glitches didn't cause any serious problems, consumer confidence was knocked and it did nothing to help the development of e-commerce. The government attempted to play down fears by pointing out that preparations may not have been as thorough as those for the millennium bug. There were no problems reported in Japan after that date roll-over.
Women are still struggling for full equality in a culture that manages to combine a rush to modernity with traditional conservative values. It's only this year that the first woman became a Bullet Train driver -- a story that the Japanese media continues to marvel at. The former capital city of Kyoto has also just appointed its first female mayor, but that has not been without its own controversies. Sumo is still a male dominated sport both inside and outside of the ring. Traditionally the prizes in Kyoto's annual sumo tournament have been presented by the city's mayor but women are not allowed to enter the ring. Despite this the mayor stuck to her guns and another conservative tradition bit the dust.
Clearly a five day trip to Japan is no where near enough time to assimilate this complex and fascinating culture. In Kyoto highly painted geisha girls can still be spotted scurrying down the side streets or getting a taxi to a tea house appointment with a client. Just around the corner you'll see independent young women in the latest Western labels strolling around with their friends. Prices for everything from hotels to trains are extremely high by Western standards, yet there is little visible poverty.
As a race the Japanese are extremely welcoming and are happy to open up to outsiders. If you get the chance to visit you won't be disappointed. []
:: John Collins is Managing Editor with Nua (www.nua.com) which specialises
:: in the delivery of web publishing solutions.
:: Email: jcollins@nua.ie
:: To view John's biography - click on Authors in the top menu.
:: Photos by David Fanning, Reviews Editor, Macworld
:: www.davidfanning.co.uk