Software development is still viewed as being a 'lesser' or 'menial' career in Japan by larger corporations. That's why you see so little software come out of Japan these days and also why so many Japanese websites are disasters of design.

Granted this has been slowly changing because of startups spinning up as well as foreign company HQs. Still, wages for developers in Japan are terribly low in most scenarios.

Something to keep in mind is that "software" (usually meaning system integration) is distinct from "web services companies" in Japan.

They've made significant headway in the latter at least for consumer services.

They have computerized toilets, so compared to what I see in most of the United States, I'd have to say yes.

Did you miss the part right after what you quoted?

> the "far-advanced technology" part just doesn't extend to mass-market consumer electronics in the same way any more.

Japan has leading technology companies in many industries that consumers just don't care about.

Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a magical level of reliability.

It was legitimately advanced up until the mid 90's or so wrt consumer electronics. Imo it's well behind the states now for sure as the most advanced economies has shifted to post manufacturing service sectors.