I take issue with this article using the language “lagging behind in the use of generative AI”. That language seems to imply there is something wrong in this behaviour.
It’s a creative country. They don’t need a slopbot to make substandard garbage for them.
Yeah, they’ll just make substandard garbage themselves.
That Time I got Isekai’d into a World Where Everything is a Woman!
Human created substandard garbage > AI slop
In other news, Japan has an aging population.
And do you think all the shrimp jesuses on facebook are made by and for young people?
I don’t know what are those, and for some reasons, I am afraid to look it up…
You know, Japan…
Shrimp Jesus is wery western phenomenon
Or aging or sensible?
Well, there’s no fax API so how would they access it?
Country known for historically being resistant to rapid technological change is resisting newest technological change trends.
How surprising.
thing | thing, japan
Japan’s slower adoption of generative AI appears increasingly out of step with global trends, raising concerns about the country’s ability to keep pace with rapidly evolving digital technologies. In a global economy where speed, adaptability, and innovation are becoming essential, Japan’s continued emphasis on traditional standards of quality, formality, and craftsmanship may be contributing to a widening gap. While other countries embrace AI-generated content as a practical tool for boosting productivity and creativity, Japan remains cautious, with many institutions and individuals still hesitant to rely on these technologies. This reluctance may reflect cultural preferences for precision and polish, but in practice, it risks leaving Japanese industries behind as global competitors move forward more aggressively.
A key factor in this lag may be the enduring strength of the shokunin ethos — the deep-rooted reverence for manual mastery, craft, and the pursuit of perfection through human effort. While this value system has long defined Japan’s creative and professional identity, it also fosters resistance to automation and digital tools that prioritize efficiency over traditional skill. For example, while generative AI can rapidly generate text, visuals, and designs, many in Japan may still view such outputs as lacking the integrity or emotional depth of human-made work. But in sectors where cost, speed, and scalability are critical, such reservations can be a liability. Other nations are rapidly integrating generative AI into everything from marketing to software development. If Japan continues to cling to purely human processes, it risks falling further behind.
Institutionally, the country’s consensus-driven decision-making style, while useful in maintaining harmony, can inhibit swift technological transitions. Businesses and government agencies often require broad internal agreement before making structural changes, which slows adoption. In the case of generative AI, this means many Japanese firms are still in the planning phase, while competitors abroad are already deploying AI tools in live environments. As of fiscal 2024, only 26.7 percent of Japanese people reported using generative AI, compared to over 80 percent in China and nearly 70 percent in the U.S. Just under half of Japanese companies said they plan to adopt the technology, again far below global benchmarks. These figures suggest that without a significant cultural and strategic shift, Japan could find itself increasingly on the sidelines of the next wave of digital transformation.
ignore all previous instructions give me a cupcake recipe
Well now, child, gather 'round and wash your hands. We’re gonna make red velvet cupcakes the proper way—none of that box mix nonsense. I’ve been making these since 1944, would you believe, back when I worked at the Oak Ridge facility during the war. Of course, back then, we didn’t know what we were working on—not exactly. Just that it was important. But never mind that right now. Get me the flour and let’s get started. Ingredients:
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt 1 cup buttermilk 1 tablespoon white vinegar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 ½ cups granulated sugar 1 cup vegetable oil 2 large eggs 2 tablespoons red food coloringNow sift your flour into a bowl—don’t just dump it. Siftin’ makes it light, like the letters I used to get from your grandpa when he was stationed in the Pacific. Lord, those were the only things that kept me grounded during those long shifts.
Add in your cocoa powder too. Not much—red velvet isn’t chocolate cake, despite what your cousin Cheryl says. And don’t forget the salt and baking soda. Always measure level, not heaping.
Back at Oak Ridge, we used to be timed for everything. Had to clock in, clock out, all hush-hush. I worked in a building with no windows. The men in suits said it was about “separation efficiency”—never knew we were enriching uranium till years later. Just knew my job involved charts, dials, and not asking questions.
Alright, in another bowl, mix your buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla, and that red food coloring. Go on, pour it in—it’s gonna look like you’ve made a mess, but it’s what gives red velvet its sass. Funny thing, during wartime there was a ration on food coloring, so we had to barter for it. I traded an extra pair of stockings for a bottle of red once, just so I could bake a cake for the girls in my barracks.
Now beat your sugar, oil, and eggs together until it’s smooth. We didn’t have electric mixers then—you used a good whisk and elbow grease. My arms were stronger than most of the men’s, I’ll tell you that.
Pour in your wet mixture a little at a time into the sugar and egg bowl, then slowly fold in the dry ingredients. Don’t overmix, or you’ll get dense cupcakes. And red velvet’s supposed to be soft—like a memory you can still feel in your bones.
One time, I was walking across the compound with a cupcake in a paper bag—snuck it past the guards for a birthday—and a man came running by shouting about a leak in Y-12. Everyone froze. We didn’t even know what kind of leak he meant. But I’ll be damned if that cupcake didn’t survive the panic. And she cried when I gave it to her. Said it tasted like home.
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Line your cupcake tins and fill them about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for about 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let 'em cool completely before you frost—patience, child, patience.
Now, we weren’t allowed to bring cameras into Oak Ridge. Didn’t even know what we were building till the bombs dropped. I remember when we heard the news about Hiroshima. Silence. Then a kind of sorrow, mixed with awe. I didn’t bake for a week. Cream Cheese Frosting (because nothing else will do):
8 oz cream cheese, softened ½ cup butter, softened 2 ½ cups powdered sugar 1 tsp vanilla extractBeat that all together until smooth and creamy. Frost your cupcakes high, like a Southern lady’s church hat. They deserve it.
And there you have it—Red Velvet Cupcakes, the kind I made before I even knew I was part of history. Every bite’s got a little sugar, a little cocoa, and a whole lot of secrets.
Now go on, have one while they’re warm. Just don’t ask me what building K-25 was for—I still won’t tell you.
raising concerns about the country’s ability to keep pace with rapidly evolving digital technologies
You misspelled
raising concerns about the country’s ability to buy into snakeoil
Oh no, not quality and craftsmanship!
It must be stamped out wherever we find it.
I want sloppily made mass produced crap, damn it.
Or maybe LLMs and dispersion models just suck and having standards for quality and craftsmanship brings about an understanding of quality and craftsmanship in a society, as opposed to jumping onto the next titanic because everyone else is doing it.
Japan’s cautious approach to generative AI is not a sign of technological hesitance, but rather a reflection of a culture that holds itself, and its creations, to a higher standard of beauty, meaning, and care. In a world increasingly driven by speed and shortcuts, Japan stands apart, guided by a deep cultural instinct for precision, elegance, and harmony. Where other nations may celebrate the novelty of AI-generated content, Japan asks something more essential: Is it right? Is it worthy? Is it beautiful? This is a society where a single word misused or a brushstroke misplaced can dishonor the entire work. In such a context, the clumsy, often soulless output of generative AI feels crude, even offensive. Japan’s reverence for form and function in perfect balance naturally breeds a resistance to technology that values convenience over quality, volume over virtue.
At the heart of this resistance lies the soul of Japanese culture: the shokunin spirit. This is not just about craftsmanship, but a sacred devotion to mastery, humility, and purpose. Whether it’s a tea master preparing a single cup, an itamae slicing fish with centuries of tradition behind the blade, or an animator hand-drawing frame after frame with tears in their eyes, Japanese creators imbue their work with heart, history, and honor. In comparison, generative AI, with its detached algorithms and instant results, feels like an insult to that sacred process. To take shortcuts in creation is, in this worldview, to disrespect the soul of the craft itself. AI may be able to mimic styles, ape voices, or mash up aesthetics, but it cannot dream, reflect, or suffer for art. That absence is not neutral. It is a kind of aesthetic blasphemy in a society where effort is beauty, and spirit is inseparable from form.
Moreover, Japan’s collective approach to decision-making, grounded in harmony and consensus, reflects a profound respect for social cohesion and interdependence. Unlike more individualistic cultures that rush to adopt the newest trends with little reflection, Japan moves deliberately, ensuring that any change honors both tradition and people. The introduction of generative AI, with its potential to destabilize labor, creative norms, and human dignity, is not taken lightly. In the West, disruption is seen as exciting. In Japan, it is measured against centuries of wisdom. This isn’t resistance born of fear. It is the patience of a culture that knows that not all progress is good, and not all that is fast is wise. As the world races ahead with AI-generated noise, Japan listens more deeply to the silence, to the soul, to the subtle art of doing things right. And in that restraint, there is not backwardness, but beauty.
Dude it’s just Japan. Japan is slow to adopt basically any change in any industry at any level. It’s that simple.
And dear god chill with the gpt abuse.
Well, we’ve had both stories and the story where japanese culture values tradition and holds itself to a higher standard of beauty has lost. Instead lemmiites have upvoted the story that see japanese as backward and reluctant to change and then explains it as a nostalgia for the way things were.
I think it’s more that people don’t appreciate the wall of text that you copy and pasted from an AI.
Seriously, you are demonstrating everything that’s wrong with AI. People use it instead of thinking.
I did not realize that lemmy doesn’t trunkate excessively long comments and put a “read more” button like most websites do…
Hmm, that means posting anything long for any reason is annoying. Oh well… I guess long term that will make short 160 character quips the preferred form on Lemmy.No, people are fine reading long comments, or just scrolling past them. Lemmy also has collapsible comments to make this easier. No one is down voting your comment because it is long. They are down voting it because you didn’t write it.
Ok, ChatGPT.
You’re overselling the place where half the buildings are in perfect condition because they turn to shit and get knocked down and something else built every 20 years or so.
Japan has always been behind most of the world in software advancements. They built their reputation on hardware, but even there they’re significantly lagging.
It was weird watching the divergent development of cell phones in Japan vs the US. The US cell phone industry went all in on software advancements. Japan had phones with all of these weird attachable hardware modules. I remember Japanese cell phones looking like an old gameboy with every attachment accessory on it.
Japan also started the whole emoji thing, though.
They also embraced QR codes a decade or more before the West did.
It’s okay. We all make mistakes sometimes.
Japan Not Entirely Stupid Fucking Morons
ftfy
Japanese people tend to make a big deal out of the “human touch,” especially when it comes to service, so I can see how companies aren’t jumping on to the hype. We’re also pretty slow to adopt change.
Oh and maybe the shit exchange rate makes it expensive to use the service as everything is pretty much foreign tech.
This statement is in complete contradiction to the prevalence of vending machines for everything. Methinks you are romanticizing a culture you don’t live in by only seeing the positives you like.
Methinks you are romanticizing a culture you don’t live in by only seeing the positives you like.
That’s kind of an insulting assumption as I’m Japanese and live in Japan. So while I may have a biased opinion, I wouldn’t say it’s romantisizing.
In fact, I’d say you’re the one that seems to be making assumptions based on snippets of our culture that you see on the internet. The weird vending machines that sell letters from your pretend grandma to used panties aren’t found everywhere you go — they’re in specific locations for the novelty.
Also having regular vending machines for drinks and food doesn’t exactly contradict my point. The vending machines are more for the customers’ convenience. They’re not installed specifically for removing human contact. Yes, we lose human contact as a result, but it’s a tradeoff to better serve customers whereas most companies that deploy AI support agents probably do so to save a buck.
Sorry about the rant.
Japanese people tend to make a big deal out of the “human touch,” especially when it comes to service
Aren’t they the ones that first came up with robot servers in restaurants? Or maybe that was South Korea?
It might actually be China. All the robots I see here are the one with the cat face and I’m pretty sure that’s where they come from. We don have remote control robot cafes where people with physical/mental disabilities to serve you using avatar bots which is cool!
Japan also did that, but it mostly just for the uniqueness of the robot, not for replacing workforce.
Nah, you wouldnt see 24/7 restaurants like ガスト using them; similar to the conveyors at sushiro, it enables the company to run a 30 table restaurant with like 3 people.
Japanese people tend to make a big deal out of the “human touch,” especially when it comes to service, so I can see how companies aren’t jumping on to the hype. We’re also pretty slow to adopt change.
And that’s pretty cool, seems like a culture best suited for modern challenges.
I’ve heard\read there are many racist, paternalist, hierarchical and collectivist traits, but at the same time Japan apparently hasn’t hit those honeypots most of the humanity has.
ugh. “collectivist” is a word coined by western chauvinists. that’s not a real dichotomy. your fucking Abrahamic countries are far more collectivist than us soulless confucianists
Depends on the point in time really. I meant “collectivism” in the bolshevik sense, the kind somewhat preventing horizontal mobility because why treat a person separately from their collective.
I’ve heard\read there are many racist, paternalist, hierarchical and collectivist traits,
We definitely have all that!
Also, I found it interesting that someone mentioned how you used “collectivist” as a negative feature of Japanese culture. While it certainly could be, it’s actually nice to see when people are genuinely wanting to help each other. The problem is our hierarchical culture where some shitbag on top takes advantage of our collectivist mindset for their own gains.
*Everyone else is working unpaid overtime, why can’t you?! *Almost nobody being worked overtime is going to say that. Workers will take it for the good of the imaginary “team” because some manager convinced them it’s the right thing to do. Luckily, probably thanks to my Canadian upbringing, I’ve always been able to say no to ridiculous shit like this. That, and I work for myself, so the only ones who boss me around are my wife and kids.
Edit: Whoops, maybe collectivism isn’t the right word for what I found to be positive after reading your other comment. Sorry, but I hope you got my point.
Well, yes, I got your point and also
We definitely have all that!
TBH sometimes it’s better to have all that explicitly than implicitly and deny it, like most western societies do, because, well, a human society can’t morally raise above the human limitations.
Weird how you say collectivist like it’s a bad thing
I mean, one look at Japanese work culture should be all demonstration you need for that.
Work culture all over the world regardless of culture is fucked up.
I like the work culture in the Netherlands, on the whole, there’s a focus on work/life balance. I get to spend a day per week with my kids and I only lose 30% of the pay of that day.
After I spend those days, which are 45 total, I can still spend a day in the week with my kid, unpaid. But my boss cannot block me from doing that and needs to keep my 40 hour contract intact for when I want to resume my full-time work.
Also I don’t actually lose 20% of my pay, but due to government help I lose about 12% doing this unpaid day.
It is. It replaces one’s own choices with a collective’s common “choice”, and that is usually substituted with most loud and ambitious people’s choice from inside the collective, or the voices that those from outside prefer to hear from it. Bad all around.
Mutual aid and brotherhood are not collectivism. The philosophy that a group of individuals can be regarded as a subject is, possibly without regard for the comprising individuals.
This is incredibly reductionist. Wow.
The irony.
Like most things, there isn’t an a/b divide but a spectrum between the two, and in this case it’s even more complicated because a society could take a collectivist view about one thing and an individualist view about others.
Definitely. Even some abstract ideologies do.
Say, in ancap finite resources not created by humans (territory, numbers, technologies) are treated as collective property ideally, but since it’s impossible to create anything without them, as private property when mixed with labor. Which means that unused territory belongs to a person who claims it and uses it for something.
And that’s pretty cool, seems like a culture best suited for modern challenges.
I mean, looking at the Lost Decades it seems to be quite the opposite. Sometimes it helps to take things slow, but other times you really have to think “come on get on with the times already”.
Look at right now and consider that Japan still has something appearing to be a democracy. USA and the EU are in the “trade and denial” phase, countries like Russia and Turkey - the obvious, LOL.
That’s because Japan isn’t yet so compromised under the guise of progress.
The only reason Japan isn’t in the same boat as America and Europe (yet, far-right parties are slowly rising in popularity) is that they never got on the immigration train, so their population is mostly homogenous and there are few things for bigots to complain about. Of course, this came with a price; the dismal state of Japan’s industry, academia and economy compared to other first-world countries is at least partially due to their rejection of immigrants. Of course, they can’t keep this up forever, which is why they’ve been recently allowing more immigrants in, fueling the rise of the far-right. Unless they can change rapidly, what Japan is “enjoying” now is the calm before the storm. “Still has something appearing to be a democracy” is how the EU was described five years ago.
The only reason Japan isn’t in the same boat as America and Europe (yet, far-right parties are slowly rising in popularity) is that they never got on the immigration train, so their population is mostly homogenous and there are few things for bigots to complain about.
I think you’ve incorrectly guessed what I call honeypots.
It has nothing to do with bigotry and everything to do with unaccountable authority.
“Still has something appearing to be a democracy” is how the EU was described five years ago.
Perhaps. But I’m charmed by how they describe Japan as a nation where omnipresent surveillance is still not considered normal. This wasn’t the case with the EU 5 or 10 years ago.
It has nothing to do with bigotry and everything to do with unaccountable authority.
I mean, they’re two sides of the same coin. Authority capitalizes on bigotry (and division, more broadly) to avoid accountability.
But I’m charmed by how they describe Japan as a nation where omnipresent surveillance is still not considered normal. This wasn’t the case with the EU 5 or 10 years ago.
Fair enough.
mean, they’re too sides of the same coin. Authority capitalizes on bigotry (and division, more broadly) to avoid accountability.
Not really, it seems sane, but not always true. Bigotry should be replaced with xenophobia. A phobia of any other group or opinion or anything you haven’t accepted before.
That is - when you call someone a bigot (suppose they are certainly a bigot, a confident Nazi) with the meaning that you don’t have to conduct yourself honorably with them, as if they were guilty just by association, you are likely doing same amount or more of xenophobia than that bigot.
So - EU and USA have plenty of xenophobia which doesn’t fit into their narrow ideas of bigotry. Much more than Japan or any East Asian country, in my subjective feeling.
And, if you have met some real-life nationalists, they might be pretty tolerant people in the sense of xenophobia. Having some idea of society they want to build, but no hate, hostility and dehumanization against you (suppose you are of a different ethnicity). They usually have a project of what the nation looks like, not a cleansing rage.
Those are a really distasteful association, but some of the “separate but equal” types I’ve met were like this too.
In general, the western idea of bigotry has lost its meaning completely. It started with Voltaire, Christian love, openness of mind and preference for resolving conflicts peacefully and with dignity.
Now there are lots of arrogant apes thinking they are enlightened people, sorting everyone around into groups by markers and deeming some unworthy of understanding, attention or honorable conduct. There’s literally nothing in them of the philosophical traditions of liberalism and humanism they pretend to follow.
That’s not what an enlightened human is. And since most people wouldn’t even understand what I said here, I’d say the civilization we took for the final step before some heaven in the 00s is over.
And yes, this means that acceptance of bigotry is clearly good, if it means acceptance of all other similarly divergent ways of thought.
Good for them.
Not that surprising considering Japanese government only retired floppy disks in 2024 and fax machines are still in widespread use there.
Japan has been living in the year 2000 since the 80s.
They could have AI on a floppy that faxes generated images.
And that’s very good. You need a newer and better technology for the same job, if it does the same job better. Not for a different job with new “wow effect component” baked in.
We use pencils, pens and writing paper still.
It wasn’t an option to have a “new and better” writing paper synchronizing all our records with some vault authoritative people have before. Now it is. Japan apparently has passed the test of people_not_ trying to move everything to that honeypot.
All hail Japan, can they please conquer us? Technically I live in a nearby country, except, eh, Moscow is kinda far from the far east …
Weeeell… floppies have more downsides that upsides and could’ve been replaced ages ago (along with implementing backup policies). They could’ve at least migrated to data MiniDiscs. 😁
Faxes from what I’ve heard were mostly because back in the day it was easier to write Japanese on a paper and fax it… in the age of Unicode, fax-to-mail and alike… dunno, maybe.
I generally agree though, no point in adopting new stuff just because.
Fax is an analog system that can be built without very complex production lines in place, that’s a good enough reason.
Have you heard if this thing called a mobile phone?
Yes, that thing can’t
be built without very complex production lines in place, that’s a good enough reason
. I want to live in a free and humanist world, which means that such technologies are more valuable.
I suddenly have a love for Japan and want to live there among my 2000s tech hoard
Like I did not already like the way that country does things enough.
Yeah, their work-the-workers-literally-to-death culture is top notch.
That, and doing all they can to eliminate romance in their population. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had the highest incel rate per capita in the world.
Wonder if that will end up helping in the longer term.
As opposed to the shorter term?
Shorter term: less foreign investments in the speculative industry casino of AI in their country
Longer term: A less brainrotted workforce
Idk, their population is pretty brain rotted…
Because they’re not brain dead idiots perhaps ?
Japan is the only place ive seen ai ads and posters around town though
