I have a problem with this statement.

Americans don't really "demand" cheap goods, it's just that professional services are too ridiculously expensive. YouTube is full of videos showing you how to repair your fridge and your washing machine. parts are easily available online.

the problem is that a technician will charge you $400 in labor to replace a $5 part, so people will prefer to buy a new one and toss the old one.

I see folks on YouTube doing plumbing work. replacing a hose bib will cost at least $200 in labor. that's just ridiculous. this means a plumber in America is making in two calls more money than a person makes in undeveloped countries in a month

I'm not saying plumbers don't deserve to get paid. rather, I say that $400 to have a washer fixed is not only ridiculous in comparison with the cost of a new washer, it's also a lot of money given that the median income in the USA is under 40k

for the case of washers, there are quite a few videos in YouTube of people showing their second hand Speed Queen washing machine, how reliable it is, and how it can be repaired. the problem is that there's quite a bit of capital investment for one of those, even if used.

not only you're missing the point, you also misquote me to make your point? man, you're an idiot

can you explain how to get permanent residence in Japan?

do you just like arguing while being wrong? I've already made my point and you have added nothing to counter it.

you're missing the point. I made my point abundantly clear and I won't repeat myself.

The article doesn't mention if this was AI generated code or not

Because it was and they won't admit this in public. The narrative of "AI will replace us all in 3 months" shouldn't be challenged.

I myself am a weeb and I've traveled to Japan 3 times so far. I've driven over 2000km there and I'm familiar with the culture. I even speak some Japanese. I considered living in Japan for a while but the long term visa situation is a major problem.

what you say is true, but you completely missed my point.

what you fail to mention is that most of those who "stay in Japan forever" do so on a spouse visa. it's the only "accessible" way to permanent* residence in Japan

Japan immigration laws are very hostile. even in America you have a way to permanent residence and even citizenship, usually all that is required is 5 or 10 years of living and working in America. Japan provides no such path to PR. Japan has even exercised their "right" to withdraw your PR status: during the pandemic many foreigners were caught outside Japan and not allowed to come back to Japan. their japanese-by-blood spouse and children, yes. this is the problem with Japanese immigration

imagine building a life there and , when Japan considers you are no longer useful, off you go.

this happened in the 90s with Brazilian-japanese that were invited to live and work in Japan somewhere in the 80s. then the bubble busted and they were basically deported. people who had been living in Japan for over a decade and had nothing left in their home county were forced to leave for the simple fact that "Japanese immigration laws allow such a thing

*: as you can see from my previous examples, permanent residence in Japan means more " a long term visa that can be cancelled on a whim".

(fun fact: citizenship can be acquired relatively easily. citizenship is granted by the department of justice, and not by immigration. to request Japanese citizenship you need to write a a letter, in Japanese of course, to the DOJ of Japan, stating that you have lived there for many years, paid all your taxes, have no traffic fines in the past year and you would like to become a Japanese citizen. relatively easy means there aren't a million rules for this, but it's up to the judge's opinion)

weeb is the only reason anyone would willingly live in Japan.

the cost of living is rising, and wages are obscenely low compared to the rest of the developed world. It may be attractive for south-east asian nurses and grunt work (of which Japan has plenty, but that's not really something making headlines in the west), but Japan insists in demanding highly skilled professionals (no college degree = no visa) and compensation is ridiculous in comparison. If you're a self-taught software developer, no matter how talented you are, you're not getting a work visa unless a company hires you. But then again, no sane developer is going to work Japanese hours for japanese salaries.

Japan wants American talent, for which an american had to pay $200k, but wants to pay $30-35k/year. Not gonna happen.

Also Japan doesn't provide any real path to permanent residence. All of those work visas are exclusively temporary. There is no exemption. There is no "but i've lived in this country for 30 years, what do you mean go back to my country? i have nothing there" exemption. And this is a very important problem: if you lived in japan and got a normal salary, you CAN'T afford a home back in your home country when japan kicks you out.

of course there are nuances to all of this but in general this is the situation in japan. Are there higher income jobs in japan? Yes, but they are for managers, and as a foreigner you're unlikely to be promoted to those.

and to be fair, if you use WhatsApp actively, you'll have things like shops and restaurants as contacts. these are constantly uploading "updates" as ads. (by ordering directly with WhatsApp you can get food much cheaper by not paying the Uber eats/door dash/etc fee)

I bet the next move is gonna be forcing these users to pay to do this.

are you really comparing a NATION STATE to a 5 people small business operation?

It's actually dependent on culture.

When I was in Japan I noticed appliances had a TON of buttons. The remote control for the hotel room AC was wild. It had all sorts of buttons for every function. My house AC has a MODE button that switches between modes. The japanese remote had one button for each mode (color coded even). I actually have a Daikin AC at home (japanese brand and actually the same brand that was in most hotel rooms - either Daikin or Mitsubishi). The "western" remote has fewer buttons.

If you ever visit a store like Yodobashi Camera, the number of signs is absolutely wild. There is no attempt to try to make it into a nice, organized boutique (except the Apple section of the store, of course). No. everything is just there. Things have a sign with descriptions. Signs say a LOT about the thing they're selling you.

Restaurant menus are just as crammed, most even have pictures. Every ingredient is listed.

According to some youtube video, this is because the japanese are a "high context" society. Meaning you are always fully aware of your surroundings (meaning you are aware of who you are and who you're speaking to - using the wrong honorific is not just a faux pas, it can cost you your job). So "things" in japan are super explicit about everything. Because in that culture, hiding things makes people suspicious (so to speak).

Other examples are japanese websites. They are absolutely crammed. Take a look at Yahoo jp or Rakuten.

Funfact: western media sold us Marie Kondo as some minimalism maximalist. Look at her social media for the west and for japan - the japanese one is way more crammed, the complete opposite of her image in the west.

so in your fantasy world you only buy a server and it will work fine without any maintenance for years to come? no updates, no parts that break, no downtime, everything will be just smooth sailing.

you're proposing that a company with 5 people can save money by running their own email system and it will be cheaper than paying Microsoft (or any other provider) 150 a month?

you nerds are always so out of touch with reality. this is why businesses need MBAs and project managers. because if it was for nerds we'd be spending half our day doing IT chores and refactoring code, and refusing to write business logic because the rules aren't simple and elegant.

get a fucking grip.

most games are now digital downloads so no logistics, stocking, or dead inventory overheads

but ok if you want to justify corporations go ahead.

it has plenty of room for price cuts. nintendo is actually selling the "japan only" version (a region-locked version with the menus in japanese only), for USD 100 less in Japan. it's japanese-only to avoid japan tourists (37M of them in 2024, and with 2025 going to surpass it) from buying it at the lower price in Japan.

fans knew this, they bitched about it, and here they are, buying the console like crazy.

oh and games for it are now $90.

I'm not following. Tiny Tapeout is an actual ASIC. It's not an FPGA.

it's cheaper than you think: https://tinytapeout.com/