What can you do really?

[Ol Dirty Gaijin]

"The Vietnamese women are clever to have passed the difficult Japanese nursing exam. But problems such as language and cultural barriers remain a nagging issue with the management," says Tanaka. He explains that despite the lack of nurses in Japan, hospitals would still give priority to Japanese staff over foreigners.

ARRRGGGGHH.
Still pissing on about language, even though the passed the damn test. Try speaking to your freakin robots then with a mouth full of cotton wool sealed with gaffer tape.

[blackcat]

"Japanese culture is homogeneous, which makes it difficult for us to communicate with foreigners." :P

He means:
Japanese minds are racist which makes it difficult for us to communicate with anyone.

they really are no words to describe how pathetic japanese self brainwashing is.

[Snapped]

"Problems such as language and cultural barriers remain a nagging issue with the management. Japanese culture is homogeneous, which makes it difficult for us to communicate with foreigners."

Yeah, it just sounds like excuses to me.

[Andocrates]

You people consistantly judge the Japanese by Western standards. They are hundreds of years behind in diversity, it can't happen all at once. It is changing albeit ever so slowly. In America, in the south, white people are still prejudice against black people, but not as bad as they were in the 1950' At least white people there don't think of black people as sub-human any longer. Little by little they see the differences is culture, not race. We have been working on that issue for at least 50 years.

I admit the Japanese can really piss you off (me too) and they seem so backwards, but give them a chance. We are no better, we have just been trying longer.

The quote was a load of horsecrap and that guy should be told so. But until he understands in his heart why it was so wrong nothing will change.

[cstaylor]

Money aside, would you really want to be changing bedpans for these old folks? I suggest a side of mochi on a weekly basis.... that should cull out the oldest of them.

[Unspoken]

Of course these magical robots would only replace foreigners in the workplace, right?

C'mon, greed isn't something that's a Western-only concept. Whenever you make a piece of machinery that does the job of a human faster/better/cheaper/etc., people lose jobs. Sure, gaijins might be at the top of the budget-cutting list, but with the backwards approach of unions in Japan, the natives would definitely lose work as well if the aging workforce didn't perfectly offset any new technologies (which seems rather unlikely).

Not that keeping a business up-to-date, so to speak, is a bad thing, but I certainly won't shed too many tears if Japanese workers start getting layed off in addition to all those pesky foreigners.

Then again I could just be underestimating that "homogeneousness" of the culture...

[kidrock12xp]

I feel that robots are going to take over all our jobs. That or better yet we'll have control of the robots from our house so we can just get up and go to work from our pc by controlling the robot. That sounds like a good idea to me but it will just get overthrown by programmers

[Socratesabroad]

You people consistantly judge the Japanese by Western standards. They are hundreds of years behind in diversity, it can't happen all at once. It is changing albeit ever so slowly.

That's the problem. Change is rarely slow in Japan. Japan turned from feudal shogunate to a modern industrial economy, from an insular, shielded set of islands to a world power in under 40 years (Meiji Rest. to Russo Jpn War). And in the aftermath of some of the greatest destruction known to man, Japan recovered, achieving global economic dominance in 40 years (1945 to 1985). But they don't seem to be hurrying to take on that pesky diversity issue. Well, that, and the fact that the entire system of citizenship (as defined by having - not appearing as a remark on - a family register) is based on ancestry and thus discriminatory (if you happen to lack Japanese blood).

In America, in the south, white people are still prejudice against black people, but not as bad as they were in the 1950' At least white people there don't think of black people as sub-human any longer.

Making a statement like that just tells me that you haven't been to the Southern US recently. The South is hardly the 'sic the dogs on 'em' image of racism it was once. I'm from around Atlanta originally and although I've been living abroad for a number of years, when I go back to visit, I have always noticed (and been overjoyed, since I yearn to speak Spanish) that the immigrant populations are skyrocketing (especially Latin American and Indian).

I admit the Japanese can really piss you off (me too) and they seem so backwards, but give them a chance. We are no better, we have just been trying longer.

We in the West aren't better, but there is proof we are trying - tanglible results like civil rights acts, antidiscrimination laws, and citizenship requirements not based solely on bloodlines. But none of those signs are evident in Japan, so are we not more than justified in asking if Japan is really trying


Of course we are

[Taro Toporific]

Firms employing record numbers of foreigners

Here's a solution for replacing Japanese children.

Carnegie Mellon grad student develops robot capable of doing ...Penn Live, May 24
... Carnegie Mellon University are excited about a graduate student who has developed a robot capable of doing origami &#8212]Videos of the origami robot making an airplane and a hat are available at [/i] http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~devin

[Big Booger]

I think it funny that they'd consider robots.. who is going to repair the robots? Manufacture the robots? Upgrade the robots? Maintain the robots?

LOL

And then there's the idea, what if the robot were to gain some AI, and go to town "I Robot" style?

I agree robots should be used in the most mundane and dangerous working conditions.

Robots cost lots of money to purchase as well.. IF you start replacing your workforce you have to figure in a lot of up front cost...

What happens when foreigners skip over Japan to work in China? I mean after all the cost of living there compared to here certainly is cheaper (though I'd say in Hong Kong it might be a bit more)... Once China embraces democracy (they've already mastered capitalism to a degree), I'd say the investment in Japan will diminish.

[DJEB]

Blackcat, you took the words out of my mouth. But they will learn the hard way that robots = chance at getting ahead of the average profit rate.

First firms will start as a cost cutting measure to get ahead, then it will be the standard - just like Windsor Ontario (Canada's Detroit right across the river) where humans have not painted or spot-welded cars for over 20 years.

[cstaylor]

That's why I keep a trusty pair of sabot beside my computer, in case I'm in fear for my job.

[jingai]

You don't need sabots- Windows computers are already pre-programed to malfunction and self-destruct. Microsoft is very generous and wants to create a lot of jobs fixing their products- afterall, Bill Gates once said Indians were the second smartest people in the world.* What a true humanitarian.



*the smartest according to Bill? Chinese