Dear lord this. Not only home networks but people without cell phones for MFA. Our Tokyo office was the hardest to transfer to WFH, thiugh we did it pretty early compared to the rest of the market there it seems.
Eh, there is usually a workaround. In a total of about 8 years in Japan I have never needed one (but I also specifically chose a foreigner-friendly bank and so on)They don't even accept your signature for most important stuff I recently found out. You must use your very own personal stamp. But supposedly that's changing soon.
Kawaii.
I have never used a fax machine.
If I were to move to Japan I guess I would just have to live in a deep forest on a mountain.
In fairness, signatures are a totally weird way to verify an identity. The only reason they're accepted anywhere is tradition and (usually) the lack of any convenient alternative. If signatures hadn't ever become a commonplace way to denote agreement, and someone seriously proposed starting to use them, we'd think they'd gone mad.They don't even accept your signature for most important stuff I recently found out.
I wonder if that was part of the problem. One of the reasons why wireless networks took off in North America and Europe was that most households had a several connectable devices (usually one or more per person by the time wireless was commercially available) and fairly slow connection speeds (so moving to wireless wasn't a bottleneck), and also no mobile data plan (or a shit one).Wait what? I thought Japan's internet is like waaaaay better than most places.
Yeah, the businesses that jumped into comms tech early tend to now have ancient stuff that they're struggling to retire. There's still countries where hospitals use pagers (and Japan only turned off its pager signals last year). Car manufacturers and banks tend to also have 1970s stuff that they need to keep running (lots of old business critical mainframe systems out there, though most are now virtualised).I think people would be surprised how widespread fax machines still are; it's not just Japan. Speaking from experience, just about every medical office and hospital in Canada still has fax machines.
Yeah, Japan is a weird combo of leading edge tech and ancient immovable bureaucracy.
My company expanded into Japan last year and I can confirm they are. The amount of banking stuff that requires paper forms - or even worse, in person requests at a branch - are staggering.Didn't realize they were this bureaucratic and set in their ways.
Ohhh man. My pockets have never been more jingly than when I was in Japan.The only thing really technologically advanced over the West is the public infrastructure (trains, subways) in Japan. Everything else is a wrap.
I just wished they'd get rid of the amount of coins they use. The worst thing.
Lol yeah, those fucking coins. When I first came to Japan, I used my credit card as much as I could just because I really hated taking the time to count my coins. Hated them so much, I threw away all my coins in the US except quarters. I eventually got used to using coins, but I still hate paying using my coins.The only thing really technologically advanced over the West is the public infrastructure (trains, subways) in Japan. Everything else is a wrap.
I just wished they'd get rid of the amount of coins they use. The worst thing.
Serious question: is it worse than Germany? malusIt's not the worst in the world - but the infrastructure is shocking.
Where are you catching taxis? I catch them regularly and pay with my company card. Of the hundreds of taxi journeys I have taken in Tokyo I am yet to find one which only accepts cash.
Yeah I never had an issue with wifi in Japan, either.This is crazy reading all of this. I went to Japan in 2017 and 2018 for 30 days a piece and didn't see any of this. I went as far south as Itoshima too. My Wi-Fi hotspot worked and generally I went to the Konbini to get cash. Although it was a vacation, but none of my friends mentioned this.
The MyNumber payment method was pretty neat.I'm actually fairly satisfied with where Japan is in terms of its use of technology for payments and bureaucratic matters. The government recently announced a stimulus package of ¥100,000 per person, and I was able to do the entirety of the registration on a phone app. The most remarkable thing about the process was that I had to use my iPhone's NFC tech as a card reader for my (Japanese equivalent of a) social security card. I had my money in 10 days.
On payments, a very large number of shops in Tokyo and other large cities now accept a multitude of digital payments, not just credit cards. Many are smartphone compatible and work with barcodes or NFC. Some small privately owned businesses still accept cash only due to the cutthroat margins they operate on, but these are certainly a minority now. (Not sure about the countryside)
There is still a long way to go but I think Japan will get there eventually.
The MyNumber payment method was pretty neat.
Unless you are visiting higher end/foreigner friendly/chains, the majority of local bars and restaurants in Tokyo do not accept payment methods other than cash. Once you get outside of the city, almost all locally owned businesses accept cash only.
That said, things are changing. I usually try to use credit card or digital payment methods in restaurants and am finding rejection less frequent these days. But more than a few minutes' walk from a station it is still much the same.
It's quite weird. Japan has incredible technology progress, the public transport is amazingly efficient, etc. But then little shit like this is where they fail at it.
It's really ridiculous it's almost comical. It is interesting how Korea passed Japan tech vise. Well I guess it kinda makes sense, Korea is the tech country of 00s like Japan was 70s-90s.South Korea zooms ahead except for identity verification. So many security certificates and checks, it's like something out of the 90s. I showed my co-workers how we one-click buy with Amazon, etc., back home and they were amazed.
Where are you catching taxis? I catch them regularly and pay with my company card. Of the hundreds of taxi journeys I have taken in Tokyo I am yet to find one which only accepts cash.
Slightly off topic, but I was also surprised that despite a great subway and train network and bars that open until 4/5 am in Tokyo, you're lucky to get a train much past midnight.
I was there last August and only the new taxis accept credit. I have read that for the olympics they were updating, that must have occurred.
Ebisu is my favorite area to stay when visiting Tokyo. I'd love to live a season of life there one day. I'd love to hear more about the specific area you live in, and what your apartment and commute are like if you're bored. DM is always welcome.Interesting. Thanks for the insight.
I think the area I live in (Ebisu) skews my perception quite a bit, lol
A lot of the ATMs in Japan still aren't 24 hours. Inside Tokyo you have a few but outside of the large city centers they close at 7pm.
Why though? They're automated so why not run them at all times?
Sorry but thats a myth, trains and subways in major cities (Tokyo) are really efficient. But all other public transportation certainly isnt, especially in the countryside. The bus service where I live is absolutely abysmal, its expensive, always late (or doesnt even turn up), the schedule is usually one bus an hour and they end the service at around 9pm, so if you finish work late you have no choice but to walk or pay out for a taxi. Thats why a car is pretty much essential outside of Tokyo.
The ATMs closing hasn't been a thing in a while. 7-11 ATMs are open 24/7. Some banks do close during Golden Week for example but if you use some of the new internet banks (7-Bank, Rakuten, SBI) they're all very modern now.
The reason for ATMs closing is because some banks run on really old systems that need to run batch jobs at night (to balance their books) so they need a period where no transactions are being made. Most banks have upgraded their systems so this mostly doesn't apply anymore except for the odd day or two.
I remember being pissed at Docomo for charging me extra money just to activate the Wifi from my router.Some companies were surprised to find their workers had no Wi-Fi at home so they had to send them all mobile internet.
I remember being pissed at Docomo for charging me extra money just to activate the Wifi from my router.
I still can't believe that's a thing on top of paying an extra fee every month to "rent" the router from them.
Ebisu is my favorite area to stay when visiting Tokyo. I'd love to live a season of life there one day. I'd love to hear more about the specific area you live in, and what your apartment and commute are like if you're bored. DM is always welcome.
In my case they took a whole week to activate it and 1000 extra yen per month for the privilege of having Wifi in my router.I mean, I had wifi art home but its so slow I had to ask for mobile Wi-Fi. If I had to pay for my Wi-Fi (luckily its inclusive with the apartment) I would be pissed. Took me THREE DAYS to download Gears 5
I live about 5 minutes away from the station, between Ebisu Garden Place and Meiji-dori (toward Hiroo). It's a pricey, but breathtaking neighborhood to live in. The location is very convenient without the baggage of becoming a major train hub like Shibuya next door; the fact the Shonan Shinjuku Line and Saikyo Line stop here mean I can get to far flung areas in other prefectures without changing trains. The amount of international restaurants never ceases to amaze me: French cuisine, Singaporean chicken rice, Bahn Mi, Thai Iced Tea, Mexican, Lawry's Prime Rib, Shake Shack, Din Tai Fung, Sarutahiko Coffee, Blue Bottle Coffee, etc. There's so much to do that I rarely have to leave the neighborhood unless I have shopping to do in Shibuya or perhaps Shinjuku.
I guess the main takeaway is that Ebisu is great as someone like me who loves international environments. It's hard for me to get homesick when I live n Ebisu.
China's getting close, and their landmass is multiple times bigger.The fact that almost all regions of Japan are connected with the bullet-train is something no other country has.
thats true about there being 24/7 atms but there are some banks where you still cant access your account even if your using the atm at a seven eleven. Sumitomo bank for example will say that the service is unavailable If you try withdrawing/depositing after midnight, no matter what ATM you use