In markmceahern: is it the language?, Mark McEahern wonders if the Japanese alphabet is somehow related to Japan’s progress or lack thereof in the business of technology.
The pragmatist in me says, heck no – that can’t have anything to do with it. Then the philosopher part says: but language encodes culture, and isn’t it the social culture that is stifling innovation in Japanese corporate policy?
I can’t say conclusively. I’ve heard some analysis that kan’ji (Chinese ideographs) help contribute to better analytical or mathematical thinking and hence better scores for Japanese students on standardized tests, but I’m not so sure. I can say that “seeing” meaning encoded directly in the written characters does help in getting the concept in a way that you don’t get when reading a phonetic representation (like English). But I can’t put my finger on exactly how.
The counter argument to the technology leadership question lies in looking at the industries Japan now dominates, like automobiles and electronics . Did the language help them? Maybe, but I think the key drivers were quality assurance, miniaturization, and a focus on the mass market.
Open source is an interesting sideshow here. The open source community is more driven by individual contribution, and here I think you can see plenty of Japanese innovation. Ruby is a good example.