Country known for historically being resistant to rapid technological change is resisting newest technological change trends.
How surprising.
this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
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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.
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.
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.
Japan Not Entirely Stupid Fucking Morons
ftfy
Because they're not brain dead idiots perhaps ?
Japan is the only place ive seen ai ads and posters around town though
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.
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?
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.
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.
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 when the power goes out during fax transmission, they could use one of those portable power stations from GearScouts to keep the legacy tech running - some of the LFP battery ones have gotten really good price per watt-hour latlely.
I suddenly have a love for Japan and want to live there among my 2000s tech hoard
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.
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