Ironically, that anti-machine sentiment is the reason why most Japanese companies still use fax machines.The western community is exactly what I would expect it to be given the circumstances. The public perception is that Vocaloid is Japanese, and Japanese media is stigmatized in the west. On top of that, westerners are often skeptical of machines doing the work of humans, and often frown upon technological help in singing. Vocaloid strikes many, if not most westerners as strange, pointless, and unattractive. As a result, Vocaloid is very niche in the west despite our best efforts, which brings me to another problem I have with the western community in particular:
I believe most western Vocaloid fans reject western Vocaloid designs that are not typically manga-styled and cute/pretty. I want western Vocaloids with just plain cool designs, too. I think it would help Vocaloid enter the mainstream here. We already have several western Vocaloids that don't have Japanese-influenced designs, like the Cyber singers, Chris, and Amy, but they are very unpopular.
If such alleged behaviour is typical, it could explain Japanese firms' productivity crisis, says Rochelle Kopp, founder of Japan Intercultural Consulting, an international training and consulting firm focused on Japanese business.
With one foot in Tokyo and another in Silicon Valley, she says: "US workers are much more productive because they have access to the best technology - the US is at the technological frontier."
Japan's failure to ditch its analogue habits and go digital means its "companies are losing out on productivity boosters," says Ms Kopp, who used to work in a large Japanese firm for several years.
"Japanese IT departments are remorselessly conservative and hate to connect their computers to the outside world. They fear data theft and hacking, which also makes them fear abroad."
Western expats living in Japan want companies to be more tech-savvy, as they are frustrated when IT systems are stuck in the 80s and 90s.As Martin Ford, author of Rise of the Robots points out, the more advanced your IT, the more likely it is to replace you.
So despite the tech-loving public image, much of corporate Japan seems intent on circling the wagons against automation and using people rather than machines wherever possible. After all, those faxes don't pick up themselves.
Such overstaffing may help keep the country's unemployment rate down at 3.4%, but it also keeps productivity down, too - not to mention entrepreneurialism.
Whether such an approach can stave off the rise of artificial intelligence, robots and automation in a world moving from a commodity-based economy to one based on intellectual capital, seems unlikely.
But corporate Japan seems intent on trying.
I think promoting the technological aspect of Vocaloid is what should be done. Miku is sometimes said to be part of the high-tech reputation of Japan (before you learn about the faxes and all that).
I hate that "weeaboo" stigma, too, but I understand - it's people viewing anime/manga (or anything with that style) as either "too kiddy" or "too perverted," isn't it?Japan and technology are often mentioned in the same breath. Bullet trains, robots, only-in-Japan phones that'll never leave the island, digital pop-idols and so on. Tech legends like Sony, Nintendo, Panasonic, Sharp, Nikon, Canon, Toyota and more were born here, but most have had mixed fortunes in recent decades. Some missed out on (or were too late to) the smartphone boom, or suffered from declining point-and-shoot-camera sales. Others simply faced stronger competition from Korean and Chinese companies. Smartphones, wearables and VR have generally come from elsewhere. Japan's reputation for getting the newest technology first doesn't ring very true these days -- in fact, those aforementioned tech giants have a reputation for being a risk-averse and slow to change. (Many, if not most companies still request that I fax over my RSVP for their press conferences and meetings. I kid you not.)
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