Doing Business in Japan
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderThe overall theme (as an American who has never visited Japan) seems to be one of risk-aversion vs. risk-insensitivity. In the U.S., the culture embraces risk and risk-takers, if most of us don't actually live out these ideals ourselves. It seems employees in Japan don't want to risk unemployment, while companies don't want to risk losing employees, while apartments don't want to risk extending credit to anybody who doesn't have a job with a recognized company. In the U.S. it…
I had a chat with a Japanese coworker some time ago. Some of the Japanese addiction for work was to distract themselves from the destructive effects of WW2. By working, they thought they would gradually turn their homeland into a better place and become a better society. Now we can see some of the side effects of the excess work, like a reduced birth rate, increased suicide rate, growing debt, death from overwork (karoshi), people doing secret nap meetings or…
Article from 2014. See past discussions: from 2014 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8573992 from 2016 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12885435
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 1019
- Total comments
- 357
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-11-07 | Doing Business in JapanFirst breakout · Best thread | waffle_ss | 818 | 305 |
| 2016-11-06 | Doing Business in Japan (2014)Latest 20+ point return | bholdr | 185 | 51 |
| 2020-05-27 | Doing Business in Japan (2014) | tosh | 1 | 0 |
| 2020-05-27 | Doing Business in Japan (2014) | sillysaurusx | 2 | 0 |
| 2020-06-07 | Doing Business in JapanHall induction | brycehalley | 2 | 1 |
| 2020-06-18 | Doing Business in Japan | prostoalex | 4 | 0 |
| 2023-09-26 | Doing Business in Japan | Michelangelo11 | 4 | 0 |
| 2023-10-07 | Doing Business in Japan (2014) | theoldlove | 3 | 0 |