And I for one think it’s a good thing. There’s always so much completely unnecessary paperwork that even I get flustered about whenever I have to fill out a form. They still use fax machines! Even curriculum vitae are mostly handwritten, I wish I was joking!

And why? Because of conservatism. Because it’s the way it is and that’s that. People get angry at me for complaining all the time that things should be done electronically, like the bank loan application last week that I had to fill out twice because I screwed up in one place. Someone’s going to have to go through and put what I wrote into the computer, so why not just let the customer do it? Two birds, one stone. Plus if you make a mistake you don’t need to fill out a whole new form! (Or is it because that will be taking someone’s job? -an argument for another time)

Anyway, this article outlines the situation well. It’s a shame that Japan is essentially being forced to make these changes, it would have been better to slowly phase things in, but I guess they had the past 30 or so years to do that, so I don’t know.

This is good for Japan though. Sometimes Japanese innovation comes from being forced into a corner, like the Meiji Restoration 150 years ago that turned them into an industrial powerhouse. Here’s hoping the transition is short and sweet.