Author Topic: The position of Japan in keyboard market  (Read 7077 times)

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Offline IceCandle

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The position of Japan in keyboard market
« on: Sat, 26 December 2020, 09:44:58 »
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« Last Edit: Sun, 05 June 2022, 00:54:39 by IceCandle »


Offline fanpeople

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #2 on: Sat, 26 December 2020, 21:01:18 »
I like my women plump therefore I don't have Japanese boner.

Offline jamster

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #3 on: Sat, 26 December 2020, 21:09:29 »
Weebs love japan, and they typically spend a lot of time in front of a computer. Katakana legends, gmk colorway copied from anime characters, Mt. fuji artisan keycaps are all proof that orientalism exerts a profound influence to custom keyboards.
But one look at japanese community tells us their interest is somewhat different from western one. They love split, small keyboards and focus more on DIYing (there are some exceptions like ai03). The PC penetration rate is lower than most developed countries, to begin with.
Nothing special about it, but I'd like to hear your opinion on the W-apenese culture in custom keyboards, and how the Japanese market actually is.

I've spent a fair bit of time in Japan, and the broad brush stereotyping here was just cringe-inducing.

Orientalism = Japan? Really?

Offline IceCandle

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #4 on: Sat, 26 December 2020, 22:47:03 »
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« Last Edit: Sun, 05 June 2022, 00:56:28 by IceCandle »

Offline jamster

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #5 on: Sat, 26 December 2020, 23:43:20 »
The broad brush statement that the entire Japanese keyboard community is into weird split boards and DIY is just baffling. Especially considering that in most Japanese households, space is at a premium and workbenches/workshops are a total luxury. Sure, there is some DIY, some interest in splits, but I doubt it's any more so than other first world countries with any geek communities.

Oriental is a loaded term for American Asians, for starters. I personally don't give a flying toss about the PC aspect of it, but Orient does refer to East Asia generally (maybe going down as far as Singapore, I'm not sure), not 'Japan'. The biggest impact of 'Orientalism' on mech boards is obviously China, with their manufacturing capacity.

It's a big a gaff as someone asking about how North American cuisine has spread around the world, and it turns out that they are just asking about the availability of Tacos Bell in France.

Offline IceCandle

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #6 on: Sun, 27 December 2020, 07:18:58 »
The broad brush statement that the entire Japanese keyboard community is into weird split boards and DIY is just baffling. Especially considering that in most Japanese households, space is at a premium and workbenches/workshops are a total luxury. Sure, there is some DIY, some interest in splits, but I doubt it's any more so than other first world countries with any geek communities. (...) Orient does refer to East Asia generally, not 'Japan'.

Looks like I worded mine too poorly.
I know most PC users, not specific to Japan, will be content with keyboards coming with desktop. Even most gamers like Razer RGB effects, like any other country. However in Japan, large supermarkets with almost all the items for DIY is called 'home center', and it can be often found on the outskirts of the city. I might be biased as I live in a country where the majority live in standardized apartments, and there are many regulations with noise and rental house compared to US, resulting in DIY spirit-barren field. Still items in yushakobo, self-made keyboard tag in twitter, and kb news channel all cover split layouts significantly more.
I believe orientalism (using this term for 'illusions about Eastern countries') is just mysticism in another form, other forms including cyrillic legends and norwegian words used for housing. A quite clever marketing strategy...
« Last Edit: Sun, 27 December 2020, 09:45:44 by IceCandle »

Offline IceCandle

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #7 on: Sun, 27 December 2020, 07:49:22 »
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« Last Edit: Sun, 05 June 2022, 00:54:15 by IceCandle »

Offline fohat.digs

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #8 on: Sun, 27 December 2020, 08:37:50 »

The PC penetration rate is lower than most developed countries, to begin with.


I had to look up the word "weeb" because I am old and out of touch.

Are you saying that a significant proportion of households do not have PCs? Presumably that includes both desktops and laptops.

That is very surprising to me.
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Offline NoteMakoti

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #9 on: Sun, 27 December 2020, 09:41:02 »
I'm pro-weeb, I think Hiragana/Katakana sublegends are good and cool.

Offline IceCandle

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #10 on: Sun, 27 December 2020, 09:43:37 »
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« Last Edit: Sun, 05 June 2022, 00:54:05 by IceCandle »

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #11 on: Sun, 27 December 2020, 10:47:59 »
where are you seeing these representations of jpn keeb market.

Offline jamster

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #12 on: Sun, 27 December 2020, 20:07:22 »
Looks like I worded mine too poorly.
I know most PC users, not specific to Japan, will be content with keyboards coming with desktop. Even most gamers like Razer RGB effects, like any other country. However in Japan, large supermarkets with almost all the items for DIY is called 'home center', and it can be often found on the outskirts of the city. I might be biased as I live in a country where the majority live in standardized apartments, and there are many regulations with noise and rental house compared to US, resulting in DIY spirit-barren field. Still items in yushakobo, self-made keyboard tag in twitter, and kb news channel all cover split layouts significantly more.


I'm not sure what these 'home centre' DIY places are. The closest I can think of would be something Tokyu Hands, which are generally found smack in the centre of cities (the best known one being in Shinjuku)

Japan has more standardised housing and more noise regulations than any other country I have ever been to. They have crazy regulations like not being able to spray paint within cities, not being able to do utilities work which involves road access without planning months in advance.

I have no idea where you are getting your ideas about Japan from. Have you actually been there?

There is some crazy DIY stuff, one of the interesting things about Japanese culture is that there is a tendency to get totally obsessed by something obscure, and to get good at it. Italian cuisine is great there for some reason. So is coffee. But keyboards remain incredibly fringe, the language is a huge barrier, and Japanese culture is famously insular and much of it stays within the country.

Again, I personally think that other Asian societies have had much more significant impacts on mech board development than Japan. Specifically China, Korea and Taiwan.

Offline hwood34

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #13 on: Sun, 27 December 2020, 22:55:26 »
I like my women plump therefore I don't have Japanese boner.

y'all really post some weird **** without thinking
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Offline fanpeople

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #14 on: Sun, 27 December 2020, 23:50:21 »
I like my women plump therefore I don't have Japanese boner.

y'all really post some weird **** without thinking
Who said there was no thinking?

Offline IceCandle

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #15 on: Mon, 28 December 2020, 09:45:56 »
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« Last Edit: Sun, 05 June 2022, 00:53:53 by IceCandle »

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #16 on: Mon, 28 December 2020, 10:47:06 »
I still have no idea what this thread is talking about.   I've not seen any -exclusive- jpn keeb content.  where are you guys seeing them?

Offline fanpeople

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #17 on: Mon, 28 December 2020, 19:44:21 »
I still have no idea what this thread is talking about.   I've not seen any -exclusive- jpn keeb content.  where are you guys seeing them?

Sign up to my onlyfans and I will make you some exclusive Japanese keeb content.

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #18 on: Mon, 28 December 2020, 19:51:11 »

Sign up to my onlyfans and I will make you some exclusive Japanese keeb content.


Halp, I need an adult...

Offline IceCandle

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #19 on: Tue, 29 December 2020, 09:36:31 »
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« Last Edit: Sun, 05 June 2022, 00:53:40 by IceCandle »

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #20 on: Tue, 29 December 2020, 10:20:13 »
I still have no idea what this thread is talking about.   I've not seen any -exclusive- jpn keeb content.
Were you expecting j-ustom keyboards? If not, what kind of content is 'exclusive jpn keeb' worthy?

Your op premise is,  Jpn keeb culture is different form the west.

OK, we accept the discussion,  but here's the thing, where is the outlet for view of the jpn keebs as representatively different from Our western keebs.

How can we discuss this, when none of us have seen this other side that you're talking about.

Hence my question, where are you seeing this disparity

Offline Shapey Fiend

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #21 on: Tue, 29 December 2020, 11:10:30 »
Certainly I was aware they're not that into PCs, at least since the mid 90's. They had a lot of cool looking PCs handsome keyboards before that like the PC88/98,Sharp X1/6800, FM Towns though.

Offline kajahtaa

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #22 on: Tue, 29 December 2020, 11:51:38 »
btw _ smkij show is pretty cool


Grandma worked for NHK for a while and loved sumo until the end

happy weebs are a thing now. grandma would have gotten a chuckle
« Last Edit: Tue, 29 December 2020, 11:54:38 by kajahtaa »

Offline KeyRelic

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #23 on: Thu, 31 December 2020, 16:41:30 »
The otaku culture is more diverse than most can imagine...

That's right.


Offline tp4tissue

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #24 on: Thu, 31 December 2020, 21:46:29 »
The whole thing about sumo,  All they really need to do is remove the Obesity requirement, and have Muscular guys wrestle in fat suits.  It's almost exactly the same.  and it would have much wider appeal.

Offline IceCandle

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #25 on: Fri, 01 January 2021, 10:04:23 »
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« Last Edit: Sun, 05 June 2022, 00:52:48 by IceCandle »

Offline kajahtaa

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #26 on: Sun, 15 August 2021, 19:23:15 »
Looking at this old thread and don't believe people understood your question.

Anyway. Did get the cornelius?

I'm still using the Fortitude60 but cut back on watching Pekaso's show so now I'm out of the loop.

Offline phinix

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #27 on: Mon, 16 August 2021, 03:16:41 »
I didn't know who otaku or weeb is, had to google it:)
So overall japanese culture fan is weeb or weeaboo, is that right?
I guess I am one, I like Japanese culture, Japan in general, and definitely japanese couisine :)
My daughter is a huge fan, huge weeb then, she stadies Japanese etc

I didn't know that there is such small amount of PC use in Japan, I thought that these countries are like origin of tech.
In regards of keebs, I would have thought they prefer standard layout, size keyboards, not those splits, ergo etc, always thought these are a minority, like majority of the world uses standard size keyboards.
Only us, keyboard lovers, explore all kinds of boards ;)

Anyway, lets talk more about Japan, I love it:)
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Offline Findecanor

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Re: The position of Japan in keyboard market
« Reply #28 on: Mon, 16 August 2021, 08:58:24 »
- There are all kinds of people who like Japan and enjoy Japanese entertainment and culture ... and then there are consumerists who go "Oh, Shiny!"
One does not necessarily imply the other, in either direction.

- Japan has a tradition for split ergo since when some Japanese computers in the '80s had them. Some newer DIY split "ergomechs" refer to that tradition, but ergomechs is also one of several world-wide trends among keyboard enthusiasts, nurtured by a renewed interest in ergonomics.

Myself, I want to go to Japan and experience many parts and aspects of it, and I have even learned some Japanese, but I am totally uninterested in artisans or keycaps with Katakana legends.
What I do want to do, however, is to add a vintage Japanese split ergo keyboard to my collection ...

Japan has largely been overshadowed by the US in computing, but part of that is because of US corporations having used their government to bully Japan into suppressing their industry. That wouldn't work as well today though now that the world is more global.
« Last Edit: Mon, 16 August 2021, 10:00:18 by Findecanor »