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Comment by porknubbins

3 years ago

On the unwillingness of Japanese to change- I think its actually Americans who are more unique because we are willing to upend large institutions and our whole social fabric when new technology comes along. Faith in progress and willingness to replace old systems to try something new is historically part of our national DNA, for better or worse. Japan values stability and generally only wants to use technology in a way that fits into the existing heirarchical social structure.

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porknubbins

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stavros  3 years ago

What new technology upended the whole social fabric?

  • bluepizza  3 years ago

    What hasn’t? USA has been transforming itself with technology for the last 200 years on an amazing pace. Cars, telephones, radios, television, airplanes, computers, Internet, smart phones, social media. The whole social fabric has been upended several times.

  • porknubbins  3 years ago

    Using technology broadly- first I was thinking of things like opioid painkillers- given out like candy in the 90s due to pharma marketing, then there was a huge backlash. Meanwhile I believe Japan has been pretty strict on medication. Amphetamines are strictly controlled there too while in parts of the US they are widely used as performance enhancers for studying.

    Another change to the social fabric is due to globalism, shareholder capitalism and roboticization taking away US manufacturing jobs. Also big box replacing locally owned retail, and possibly internet shopping replacing bix box stores. Of course these are present in Japan too, but not allowed to dramatically change society quite so fast.

    • filoleg  3 years ago

      > Amphetamines are strictly controlled there too while in parts of the US they are widely used as performance enhancers for studying.

      In the US, amphetamines are strictly controlled too, it is a schedule II drug. You need to be prescribed by a doctor, and they cannot write a prescription for more than 30 days worth of prescription at once. You have to visit the doctor every 90 days to get re-validated that you need your prescription and all is good. If you are caught even once abusing drugs (not just this specific one, but any in general), including stuff like giving them out to other people, you are never getting prescribed amphetamines again in your life, and that will be the least of your worries in this scenario.

      Iirc in Japan amphetamines are "controlled" in a sense that they cannot be prescribed at all. Hell, I was looking to travel to Japan soon, and turns out I cannot even bring my 30 days worth of prescription that I fully legally own in the US, no matter what kind of records or papers from my doctor or the hospital that I am willing to provide to their authorities.

      So yeah, it is a bit easier to control abuse when no one can get the drug even legally in your country in the first place. I wouldn't call a full-on ban as "controlled" though. Not trying to make a claim that the US approach to this is better than that of Japan, that's not my intent. Just pointing out that using amphetamines as an example of "Japan controlling drugs" compared to the US is a bit of a bad example.

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