Where are the Japanese?

[bobdude17]

I am surprised about how little Japanese representation and news there is in Bitcoin.

The main Bitcoin exchange is based in Japan, the creator of the whole idea has a Japanese name, they are the world's third largest economy, Nikkei is crashing, and they are the techiest country on earth? Why is it not catching on like wildfire there? I have not even seen any comments about Bitcoin coming out of Japan. Surely the idea behind bitcoin would not strike them as strange. Thoughts?



Here's a conspiracy theory for you:
(Just throwing it out there, I don't necessarily believe this, but worth considering.)

Japan gets tired of being under thumb of the US(troops in Okinawa, economy).
Japanese group comes up with brilliant idea of writing the first computer Financial Virus.
Japanese government endorses the plan to throw a wrench in the gears of the US global economy.
Japanese pride insists that at least the anonymous name be Japanese.
Virus released.
Satoshi Nakamoto(group) mines and stores 1M Bitcoins and quietly exits the scene.
Rest of the world runs around like ants trying to get rich implementing this new technology.
Japan sits quiet.
The world bows to the inevitable, the financial virus succeeds. Bitcoin is the world reserve currency, holdings have become more equally distributed.
Those 1M Bitcoins are now a gigantic geopolitical force.
Satoshi releases the coins to the Japanese government.
Japan is now by far the world's richest country, and by default becomes the superpower.
Japanese conquest dreams since World War II : realized.

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[misterbigg]

They are at MtGox!     

[herzmeister]

I think the question has been asked before here, and afai remember some have speculated that the Japanese culture is somewhat more hierarchical and authoritarian.

[cbeast]

Electricity prices are probably mining cost-prohibitive. But OTOH, Satoshi Nakamoto probably owns 10% or more of the bitcoins just himself.

[mcdett]

I think the question has been asked before here, and afai remember some have speculated that the Japanese culture is somewhat more hierarchical and authoritarian.

This is exactly correct.  Japanese culturally don't like to step out of line.

I've often thought of bitcoin as being started by some government entity.  the romanticism of a lone programer implementing and seeding this technology feels a little too good to be true, but alas these are my feelings.

whom ever owns the initial bitcoins will own the throne of the finicial world if bitcoin takes off... who is Santoshi?

[bobdude17]

I think the question has been asked before here, and afai remember some have speculated that the Japanese culture is somewhat more hierarchical and authoritarian.

This is exactly correct.  Japanese culturally don't like to step out of line.

Please. That sounds so ethnocentrically ignorant. I used to live in Japan, kids these days are all over anything new and unusual. Especially tech shit. Especially American shit.
Step out of line? Have you seen what Japanese get into for entertainment over there?

And if you say that they wouldn't be interested in Bitcoin because it undermines their government, Bitcoins have not gotten big enough to have been declared an anti-government activity(yet). It would not at all be considered "stepping out of line". And there is no way they are more authoritarian than the Chinese, and the Chinese are leading the client download chart right now.

[herzmeister]

either way, if Bitcoin is a secret Japanese gov stealth operation, that wouldn't explain the apparent disinterest of unsuspecting Japanese cool tech kids either.

[syn999]

got love  Abe administration

[bobdude17]

either way, if Bitcoin is a secret Japanese gov stealth operation, that wouldn't explain the apparent disinterest of unsuspecting Japanese cool tech kids either.

True, which is why I don't really believe the conspiracy theory, it's just thought provoking.
I definitely am trying to understand the reasons Bitcoin isn't bigger in Japan, but I don't think an authoritarian culture is the answer.

[KSV]

why would he/she/they give him/her/them a Japanese name in that case? wouldnt john doe be more apt?

[KSV]

got love  Abe administration

who doesnt love hyper-inflation

[syn999]

got love  Abe administration

who doesnt love hyper-inflation

i asked quite few japanese when i was in japan months back, they never heard bitcoin or others.

Abe adm trying to cost inflation

[mcdett]

Please. That sounds so ethnocentrically ignorant.

Don't get mad so quickly.  It is true that culturally today the majority of people in power don't step out of line, or encourage it.  It is also true that the next generation is more American (especially in their waist line), but those people have yet to reach to any prominence of power yet in the system.

Let's try to talk this out with out calling each other names, or getting mad.

[alyssa85]

got love  Abe administration

who doesnt love hyper-inflation

Japan doesn't have hyper-inflation. They don't even have inflation. They are in a state of deflation - see the following chart:



The only reason the graph has turned up a bit at the end is because that nuclear power plant explosion put up electricity prices.

Compare to the chart of US inflation:



Also take a look at this chart of the dollar v yen:



The value of their currency has more than doubled since 1985! Their attempts to weaken it hasn't even taken them back to 2008 levels. This is a strong, hard currency.

I guess they are worried about the end game because they have unusual demographics - more than half their population is old, which exerts deflationary pressures by themselves. Now their overall population is starting to drop and they're scared that if they don't at least get back to 2005 levels, they won't be able to cope.

To answer OP's question: only when they get back to their 1985 dollar:yen value, will the Japanese start looking for other currencies... And the likelihood they'll actually succeed in weakening that far is slim to none. Their currency is harder than Bitcoin. I expect they'll be the last place to adopt it because of the deflationary nature of their own currency.

[securityguy]

got love  Abe administration

who doesnt love hyper-inflation

Japan doesn't have hyper-inflation. They don't even have inflation. They are in a state of deflation - see the following chart:

Japan does have inflation, the charts you presented are manipulated propaganda.   If you have lived in Japan over a period of years then you would have seen the cost of food, water/energy/utilities rise slowly, that is inflation.   

[Mike Christ]

got love  Abe administration

who doesnt love hyper-inflation

Japan doesn't have hyper-inflation. They don't even have inflation. They are in a state of deflation - see the following chart:

Japan does have inflation, the charts you presented are manipulated propaganda.   If you have lived in Japan over a period of years then you would have seen the cost of food, water/energy/utilities rise slowly, that is inflation.   

Depends on how long a "period of years" is, as the charts seem to indicate that it takes a period of years for inflation or deflation to occur.

[alyssa85]

got love  Abe administration

who doesnt love hyper-inflation

Japan doesn't have hyper-inflation. They don't even have inflation. They are in a state of deflation - see the following chart:

Japan does have inflation, the charts you presented are manipulated propaganda.   If you have lived in Japan over a period of years then you would have seen the cost of food, water/energy/utilities rise slowly, that is inflation.   

Depends on how long a "period of years" is, as the charts seem to indicate that it takes a period of years for inflation or deflation to occur.

This. And what's indisputable is that the value of the yen has risen since 1985. 1 dollar could buy you 250 yen in 1985 but only 100 yen now (and that's after the strenuous efforts of the Japanese govt to weaken the currency). That's a massive increase in purchasing power. Is there any other fiat currency that has been increasing it's buying power like that?

My feeling is that bitcoin will go mainstream in places like Argentina first, where the purchasing power of the currency is diminishing by the day, and Japan last.

[foo]

Good question, OP.

Here's the Google Trends data for Chinese, Japanese and Korean versions of the word "Bitcoin":

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%E6%AF%94%E7%89%B9%E5%B8%81%2C%20%E3%83%93%E3%83%83%E3%83%88%E3%82%B3%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3%2C%20%EB%B9%84%ED%8A%B8%EC%BD%94%EC%9D%B8&date=today%203-m&cmpt=q

As you can see, China has learned that Bitcoin exists in the past two months, but searches in Korean are still at approximately zero, and Japanese has so few searches it can't even be graphed.

EDIT: Hmm, it seems that "Bitcoin" is more popular in Japan than "ビットコイン". (Japanese Wikipedia uses "Bitcoin", for example.) That makes it a bit more difficult to graph just Japanese searches.

[jonwaller]

I'm in Japan. I think the reason is very little media about Bitcoin in Japanese. English comprehension is pretty low here. (Compared to Germany, for example)

[CurbsideProphet]

Japan gets tired of being under thumb of the US(troops in Okinawa, economy).

Most of those troops are getting relocated to Guam.