To categorize Japan's entire Internet industry as "not getting it" based on a few interviews with foreign techies and a superficial cultural examination seems unprofessional. Granted, access fees and telecom charges are prohibitive, many managers don't yet understand the technology or its implications, and the Internet is still primarily the realm of otaku (geeks). Except for the bit about telecom charges, though, is this not a picture of the Web in the U.S. just a few years ago, when avatar chat was cool and when geeks were anything but?

Based on the cultural cohesiveness, consumerism and love of techno-gadgets in Japan, it's quite possible to argue that once a few trusted companies clear some rather large hurdles -- such as swaying consumer opinion on e-commerce, nurturing the adoption of some form of online payment and working with the government to continue to deregulate all types of industry, including telecom -- that the rate of Internet adoption in Japan could overtake that in the United States. The fact that consumers will have a corner store pick-up option for goods purchased on the Web, in addition to a home or work delivery option, means only that Japan's unique brand of e-commerce will be more convenient than its Western counterpart.

-- Jay Ashton
Tokyo

David Lazarus misses one key reason for the lack of penetration into the daily lives of computer users. Most adult computer users in the West were first exposed to the Internet, and computers in general, through work or school. They gained a good understanding of the computer as a tool before bringing the box into their homes. But given the peripheral functions that computer networks serve in Japanese business, few Japanese really know what computer can and cannot do.

The marketing campaigns provide a false image of both computer and internet use. Every TV commercial I have seen sells the computer as a fun toy. Trendy young people at a party are shown gathered around the screen, oohing and aahing over pretty Web pages, or spending a romantic evening with their lover looking at images of Paris. When Japanese consumers buy into this image, fork over several hundred thousand yen for a computer system and Internet access, and get their systems up and running, they find nothing of interest in Japanese, nothing useful, nothing but corporate wank sites and home pages of people who have nothing to say. It's hardly surprising that after an initial surge, PC sales have tailed off dramatically. Until computer use penetrates corporate and educational institutions as a tool for increasing individual efficiency and productivity, the Internet is never going to be anything but a trendy plaything, soon tossed aside for the next toy.

-- Ruskyle Howser

I lived and worked in Japan from 1974 until 1979 and formed similar impressions about the Japanese approach to technology. If it was "sexy" and exportable, full steam ahead! If it promoted individuality, forget it. The Net in Japan will grow only in proportion to how it maintains conformity and the status quo. When they figure out how to achieve consensus by electronic signature, every Japanese business man will have a remote, pocket-sized Web-access unit.

-- Robert B. Shaw
Pebble Beach, Calif.

I can't reconcile Lazarus' conclusions about e-commerce in Japan with our direct experience over the past four years -- monitoring millions of dollars of online orders being placed by thousands of Japanese customers with our clients (companies such as Amazon.com, Dell Computer Japan and Outpost.com), and paid for with credit cards. To get the real story, just ask any leading U.S. e-tailer which country accounts for the largest portion of sales after the United States.

-- Tim Clark

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