Comment by bluepizza

> Just because something is different doesn't mean it is wrong or the makers are incompetent. Some of these e-commerce firms have thousands of good developers. Designs are extensively A/B tested. They are common because they work.

Everyone in Rakuten repeats this. It's not true. A/B testing between bad and bad still results in bad. You just get which bad works better.

If Japanese design was awesome, it would be pretty obvious to anyone how awesome it was. This sort of rationalization of bad quality is the mark of today's Japanese mediocre output.

Luckily there are strong local players, like Recruit or TeamLab, who refuse this idea of "it's good because I say so", and are actually pushing for better products.