<story><title>Sony Aibo</title><url>http://aibo.sony.jp/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>donw</author><text>Sadly, this is a result of deeply-rooted parts of Japanese culture.&lt;p&gt;In Japan, you don&amp;#x27;t just walk up to people and strike up a conversation. Foreigners might, but native Japanese largely don&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;To establish some sort of repertoire, you need to share some sort of acceptable social context with that person: went to school together, played on a sports team together, work together, etc.&lt;p&gt;And, given that Japanese companies commonly have working hours that would be classified somewhere between &amp;quot;insane&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;criminally negligent&amp;quot;, you don&amp;#x27;t really have time to socialize with anybody outside of your office.&lt;p&gt;This all goes triple for Tokyo, which has a very cold and sterile personality.&lt;p&gt;Expats tend to glop together into a tight group -- the &amp;quot;foreigner&amp;quot; community in Tokyo is like a small town in and of itself -- but for the natives, the end result is that there are a &lt;i&gt;lot&lt;/i&gt; of very lonely people here.</text></item><item><author>cocktailpeanuts</author><text>Japanese companies know how to build products for lonely people.&lt;p&gt;And the rest of the world is catching up with this &amp;quot;loneliness&amp;quot;, with advent of superficial social media oversharing. Everyone is increasingly becoming lonely inside.&lt;p&gt;So I think this is a huge opportunity and not a niche product anymore as of 2017, as long as they get it right.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jaredklewis</author><text>&amp;gt; In Japan, you don&amp;#x27;t just walk up to people and strike up a conversation. Foreigners might, but native Japanese largely don&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;First of all, I&amp;#x27;ve seen Japanese (who are strangers) strike up conversations on occasion in Tokyo: at the coin laundry, at the bakery, on elevators, and so on. It&amp;#x27;s not like a social taboo or something. But yes, in general, people keep to themselves.&lt;p&gt;That being said, in my experience, people in New York and Los Angeles also keep to themselves. My instinct is that the apparently introverted nature of people in Tokyo has nothing to do with Japanese culture and everything to do with the fact that it is a big city in a developed country. Perhaps someone from London can bring in another data point?&lt;p&gt;If my experiences in rural Japan are at all normal, Japanese in rural Japan are at least as talkative as those in the Southern US (where I&amp;#x27;m from).</text></comment>
<story><title>Sony Aibo</title><url>http://aibo.sony.jp/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>donw</author><text>Sadly, this is a result of deeply-rooted parts of Japanese culture.&lt;p&gt;In Japan, you don&amp;#x27;t just walk up to people and strike up a conversation. Foreigners might, but native Japanese largely don&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;To establish some sort of repertoire, you need to share some sort of acceptable social context with that person: went to school together, played on a sports team together, work together, etc.&lt;p&gt;And, given that Japanese companies commonly have working hours that would be classified somewhere between &amp;quot;insane&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;criminally negligent&amp;quot;, you don&amp;#x27;t really have time to socialize with anybody outside of your office.&lt;p&gt;This all goes triple for Tokyo, which has a very cold and sterile personality.&lt;p&gt;Expats tend to glop together into a tight group -- the &amp;quot;foreigner&amp;quot; community in Tokyo is like a small town in and of itself -- but for the natives, the end result is that there are a &lt;i&gt;lot&lt;/i&gt; of very lonely people here.</text></item><item><author>cocktailpeanuts</author><text>Japanese companies know how to build products for lonely people.&lt;p&gt;And the rest of the world is catching up with this &amp;quot;loneliness&amp;quot;, with advent of superficial social media oversharing. Everyone is increasingly becoming lonely inside.&lt;p&gt;So I think this is a huge opportunity and not a niche product anymore as of 2017, as long as they get it right.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sho</author><text>&amp;gt; you don&amp;#x27;t just walk up to people and strike up a conversation&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d like to know what world you live in where this is any kind of option. Maybe &amp;quot;my introvert is showing&amp;quot; but I don&amp;#x27;t even consider doing this. Is this abnormal?</text></comment>