First things first: there will not be a clear winner, but let’s try to look at this from various angles. As a German living in Japan, I am tied into people and media in both countries, let’s try a comparison. Infection numbers Numbers of daily new infected people is considered one of the most interesting criteria. Being near to China, Japan had first infections quite early, but Germany was catching [Read More]

Background Everybody knows about the Japanese “san”, which you attach when communicating with Japanese colleagues. So, when you also refer to non-Japanese colleagues in the same email, do you then also use ~san? If not, do you think they read the email as ‘he does not respect us equally’? Just asking to point out one of the small oddities about this piece of etiquette. For those who do not know [Read More]

German/Japanese/English versions of this text are here: https://fluxcoil.net/ . English: Interactions with technology in Japan When I was little and asked my grandmother where in the world the technology was most advanced, she said: “In Japan!”. I have been living here for a few years now, and I am still fascinated by the culture of the country, the mentality of the people and especially how the Japanese deal with technology. [Read More]