> Why should Japan have excelled here vs any other country?
30 years ago Japan was world-beating, today it isn't. You could say that to not be excelling is the norm, and the causes of success 30 years ago are the things to be investigated; nevertheless, this feels like a decline.
> I watched several large bitcoin startups um, startup. I saw what must have been 11 different payment system appear (PayPay, D-Pay, ...), just as 2 categories.
Japan has dozens of payment systems but how many of them are competing outside Japan? How many are even trying? NFC-F is still technologically better than Visa/Mastercard contactless, but I bet the latter is going to win out, because it's the international standard; even in Japan new cards come with that.
30 years ago Japan was world-beating, today it isn't. You could say that to not be excelling is the norm, and the causes of success 30 years ago are the things to be investigated; nevertheless, this feels like a decline.
> I watched several large bitcoin startups um, startup. I saw what must have been 11 different payment system appear (PayPay, D-Pay, ...), just as 2 categories.
Japan has dozens of payment systems but how many of them are competing outside Japan? How many are even trying? NFC-F is still technologically better than Visa/Mastercard contactless, but I bet the latter is going to win out, because it's the international standard; even in Japan new cards come with that.