First impressions, from conversations with a few software engineers and managers, and a day-long visit to one large high-tech company: Japanese software developers probably work longer and harder than their American counterparts, but they are still frequently regarded as “second-class citizens” by their hardware-oriented peers and managers. Because they work so long and so hard, the nearly universal complaint that I’ve heard is that they have little or no time to study, to read new books, to learn about new developments in the field, or just to think about what they’re doing.

Relentless competition between all of the major electronics, consumer appliance, and other high-tech companies is driving prices down 20% per year, trimming profit margins, and putting constant pressure on everyone. All of this is leading to falling morale among high-tech workers, but annual turnover is still an amazingly low 2-3% per year (compared to India, where it’s more likely to be 2-3% per month!). Thus far, I’ve seen relatively little awareness of, or appreciation for, blogs or wikis or the whole Web 2.0 world. Everyone here knows that Google is amazingly powerful and successful, but the notion that Google software engineers are allowed to spend 20% of their time working on what they want to do (as opposed to some new wrinkle on the company’s mainstay search engine technology) appears to be an alien concept…

Apparently, the most provocative thing I’ve said so far to the Japanese software folks is that if they want to survive and succeed with a “death-march” software project, they’ll need to be willing to break whatever administrative/bureaucratic rules are slowing them down. The Japanese are very reluctant to break rules, though you’d be surprised how often I get the same resistance from American project managers trying to cope with the pressures of a death-march project.

None of this is intended to suggest that software developers are better or worse in one place or another; it’s just interesting to see where things are different. And I should emphasize again that all of this represents “first impressions” and is by no means a scientific survey or thoroughly researched analysis of the entire Japanese software industry. Take it for what it’s worth… after all, it’s only a blog.

Oh, yeah, one more thing: Tokyo has been invaded by KFC, Denny’s, and 7-11. I haven’t seen the MacDonalds or Burger Kings outlets, but they’re probably right around the corner from my hotel. Now all I need is a Starbucks and a Dunkin’ Donut, and maybe a Popeye’s chicken outlet and an IHOP, and I’ll feel like I’ve never left New York City.