genshiryoku t1_ittzimx wrote
Reply to comment by Kinexity in With all the AI breakthroughs and IT advancements the past year, how do people react these days when you try to discuss the nearing automation and AGI revolution? by AdditionalPizza
Japan isn't a true capitalist society. For example Japanese companies don't prioritize profit, they prioritize status.
A good example of this is to how the west judges a successful company versus Japan. In the west a company success is based on their Market Cap, so essentially their stock valuation. In Japan a company success is based on the amount of employees they have. Since it's assumed that they contribute more to Japanese society by "taking care" of that large amount of people.
Startups in the west try to gain as much valuation as possible. Startups in Japan try to gain as much employees as possible.
During recessions Japanese companies refuse to fire employees because it would mean losing face and prestige for the company, instead the CEO and managers all take pay cuts if necessary, sometimes even selling personal stocks or their homes to ensure they don't fire anything since the main purpose of companies is to provide jobs, not to be financially solvent.
There's also a sense of "stability is the most important thing" in Japanese culture. This is why we have a saying that roughly translates to "It's more honorable to fail while doing what you know, than it is to succeed by innovation". This is why Japanese companies rarely innovate. The stability of doing something you know is highly priced over doing something new that removes this stability, even if it leads to something better.
All of this combined means that most Japanese people, including young people think of jobs as something sacred. Jobs are already not tied to productivity here, it's more a social function.
If Japan would get an "UBI" it would be in the form of guaranteed employment for everyone, the employment wouldn't have to be productive but it would need to have a sense of stability and community improvement for it to work. Something like everyone having to make the neighborhood more beautiful and clean and nice to live in 8 hours a day.
AdditionalPizza OP t1_itu5xen wrote
>Something like everyone having to make the neighborhood more beautiful and clean and nice to live in 8 hours a day.
In your opinion, how many hours a day/week do you imagine people doing this? I know Japanese work culture is much different than the west. What in your view is the "right" amount of hours to work to qualify as not being perceived as lazy?
ebolathrowawayy t1_itv5vba wrote
This was incredibly interesting to read. Thank you!
As a westerner I felt a mix of horror and awe when reading that. On one hand, a society like that does not innovate which means workers must continue to work long hours most of their lives and at some point the country may not be able to compete globally and fall into financial ruin. On the other hand, workers have much more secure jobs, less stress and seemingly less of the "1%" problem and no "trickle down" bs economic policies. It sort of sounds like Japan already has a form of UBI with this system. The part about companies taking pride in caring for as many employees as possible had me in awe.
I don't understand why Japanese workers work such long hours though and then go out to bars with their coworkers for most of the night most nights. Maybe it's a sense of community among coworkers? To the point where their coworkers are more like family than their actual family?
challengethegods t1_iu0yxii wrote
culture of 'BS jobs' solution:
superAI creates a company and hires everyone to be a vTuber, streamer, etc. and then that's your 'job', and you can just play games or watch videos or chat or whatever during 'work hours' - justification is that more data created, and your culture gets to say that you're an employed content creator, even if 90% of viewers are the digital people.
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