zlacker

>>anigbr+(OP)
Low interest rates and lack of manpower was one of the catalysts of the Industrial Revolution.

Perhaps Japan is going to be the place to be if you're in the "do more with machines" business.

They can only solve this with significant capital investment and major productivity improvements.

>>neilwi+im
I'm not really sure about this, Japan loves meaningless highly manual process intensive jobs and high employment rates, so I understand what you mean, but replacing people with machines isn't really in their DNA even though Japan seems to like robot movies.

Maybe in the face of some type of economical crisis they will change their tune but I wouldn't bank on it. In my opinion, they've been burned once, they were the top dogs for a while, economically poised to even surpass America, and now, a lot of people are without money. So I think it will take a bit of convincing to want to go back to those days.

Japan has an interesting sort of apathy (??), kind of like, they're happy to not be the center of attention and just go on minding their business. We had some business development people visit Japan recently and they were stunned at the lack of competitiveness and interest in growing their businesses.

I guess this is a culture which was happy isolate itself from the world for centuries and I guess if it could, there's nothing saying it wouldn't do it again...I have to say, I can't always blame them :)

>>bamboo+rp
Besides what ehnto has said, I also believe you're only partly correct about the manual process intensive jobs. What you're correct about are the jobs linked to culture and tradition. For example manga, soba noodles, bonsai trees, ink making or woodworking. But they are absolutely replacing whole sectors of manual jobs with machines, ones they don't seem to value to protect. Like retail, they're the absolute leaders in vending machines and attendless brick&mortar shops. Or automaking and electronics.

>>Sponge+hR
I live in Japan and have never seen a attendless brick&mortar shop?

Vending machines are everywhere, but usually only for drinks and there is plenty, and I mean plenty of retail shops.

So I don't know what you mean really. Automaking electronics, again not sure, there is a fujitsu factory nearby where I live, there's hundreds maybe thousands of people going in and out of there each day.

Do you have a romantic view of Japan that doesn't exist maybe?