Oriental perspective—size matters: laptops rule in Japan
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
May 1, 2006 at 6:40pm
( Tony Silva writes a regular “Macsimum” column looking at the Mac world from his perspective in Japan.—Dennis) If one stops to think for even the shortest moment, it should be no surprise that the laptop/desktop ratio would be higher in Japan than in places such as North America. Small island, lots of people. Duh. Sure, but I still was caught off guard a few years ago, when, during a presentation for the local users group KMUG, I asked for a show of hands of those whose primary machine was a PowerBook or an iBook. Almost every hand in the place went up, certainly over 90 percent. Luckily, I had the presence of mind to make some fast on-the-go changes in the day’s presentation while the surprise settled in. While some of the reasons are obvious, some may not be. Some of them might even be pretty interesting to someone not that familiar with the culture.
Of course, the biggie is space—or is that the smallie? Japan is a small place with a lot of people smooshed into the habitable land between steep mountains and sea. Houses, offices, shops, restaurants are all scaled way down when compared to their counterparts in the U.S. Newcomers to Japan are always banging their heads and knees on one thing or another. Even the people are smaller - or were. The recent generation, raised on Mickey D’s and nice buxom hormone-injected chicken, tower over their elders. When I rode the trains in my first years in the late eighties, I’d marvel at the sea of head tops around me like a field of black cabbages. I’m 5’ 8”.
My first apartment here was a one-room deal, with a mini-fridge and a one-burner range in a narrow hallway. The hinged bed dropped down from one of the walls. With it up, I could lie on my back and touch all four walls. The last apartment I rented was relatively spacious - maybe the square footage of a nice one-bedroom apartment back home. * Here I enjoyed the luxury—rare here—of both a desktop G4 and a 12-inch PowerBook. A place this size is intended for habitation by a family of four. So, yes, it’s crowded, and looking at the space taken up by a big ol’ G5 dualie, a portable is a no-brainer. Most folks just don’t have the luxury of an extra room - or even an extra corner—for a “home office.” The computer is expected to fold up and make way for other accoutrements of daily life, just like the futon. Yes, the traditional Japanese bed is still the futon; it gets folded up and put away in the special futon closet each morning - unless it’s draped over the balcony railing for airing and sunning. Briefly, imagine life in a center seat in coach.
There’s more to it, though.
First, the work style is completely different. Aside from poor overworked and underpaid teachers
, almost no one takes work home. In most western cultures, a worker tries to appear relaxed and in control at the office, even if it means dragging work home and burning the midnight oil long after the family has gone to bed. Any success should appear as effortless and as natural as possible. Here in Japan, one’s effort is best displayed prominently. Consequently, people do whatever work they have at their office; no one would see them working if they were at home. This display is so important that people stay at work trying to look as if they were working, even if all they are doing is moving paper from one pile to another. (It’s worth noting that Windows users here seem to share their Western counterparts obsession with solitaire.)
Aspects of home lifestyle also conspire against desktop ownership. Among the reasons male workers stay longer in the office is that’s where their wives prefer them. This may be less common than in the past, but it’s still there. And, since it’s the traditionally the wife that controls the bankbook, it’s unlikely she’d budget a few hundred thousand yen for that G5 that would keep her husband at home and underfoot. The kids have their GameBoys and cell phones. Don’t dismiss those cell phones (keitai denwa) lightly, though. Online games, web browsing, and real email have been on cell phones here for a very long time. It’s real email, not text messaging, and real browsing, not some proprietary subscription portal. High school and university kids blog from their phones. Still photos, movies, GPS, of course. Television, too, though one wonders why. The equivalent of 40, 50 bucks a month. Check it out here. The need for a home “computer” is less pressing when you’ve got all that power in your pocket.
There’s also a kind of Zen aspect to the portable computer preference, too. I’m serious. Back in the States, the home is, well, a man—or woman’s—castle. The Fortress of Solitude. We build a refuge from the world, a personal uber-luxo-womb we can escape to when we need to get away from the real world. Safe and secure behind our real and virtual firewalls, we create our own personal space. Here in Japan, deprived of that luxury, things really do become much more of the here-and-now: you take your ‘book to a hotspot cafe, hunker down, put up some virtual walls, and there you are. Modern day digital equivalents of the traditional paper shoji sliding door panels that defined “privacy” in earlier eras. More at home than at home. Free. In the moment. Feel that Zen hum?
Of course, what one pays for that with is speed. Anyone anywhere in the world using a ‘book as his or her main computer knows what I’m talking about. The wailing for a G5 PowerBook over the past years has not been without justification. I mean, satori is all well and good, but, really, can’t those 12-inch Intel ‘books get here any sooner?
*My current digs are embarrassingly adequate: a condo in the heart of Osaka, view of the Castle, view of the Tenjin Matsuri, a balcony/terrace big enough for barbecuing and kicking back—all shared with the indescribable Professor Alison. I’ll grouse with the rest about the lethargy of my PowerBook, but not about that!
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 10,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
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