niztk

Indeed, Japan consistently ranks dead last in terms of English proficiency among OECD countries. Heck, it’s even last among Asian economies including developing ones.

There’s hardly any i18n for apps/services/portals implemented in Japan barring very few exceptions with minimum and rough execution. The few times I tried to hire Japanese engineering talent, I was shocked by the extreme lack of English aptitude for those out of CS curriculums and we are talking about top universities such as Tokyo University (Todai) and other prestigious institutes of technology. I can’t help but think that Japan will sink deeper into mediocrity if they don’t fix their language problem.

I live and run a startup out of Japan and given the engineering talent here or lack thereof, I can almost guarantee that you won’t see any Japanese tech startup going global anytime soon. If anything, they will copy another global innovative company and dominate the domestic market but with no real innovation (look no further than the very mediocre Rakuten).

Gone are the days where Sony, Nintendo and others had what it takes to craft a quality product that was compelling to global audiences.

Japan has lost its mojo and the sad thing is that the conservatives forces are so strong that this country won’t attract any talent needed to change the bad bad status quo for the foreseeable future.