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The story
Businessman Hiroyuki Nishimura posted on X by September 4, explaining why he thinks Japan is “gradually growing poorer.” Nishimura pointed out that while Japan hasn’t even properly rolled out ride-sharing services like Uber, the U.S. is expanding driverless taxis and trucks. A Yahoo News article covering the remarks was picked up on 5channel’s Geinou/Sports Breaking News+ board, sparking a split thread over how widespread driverless driving really is in the U.S., who’s liable when accidents happen, and why ride-sharing hasn’t caught on in Japan.
Fri, Sep 4, 3:35 PM
Businessman Hiroshi “Hiroyuki” Nishimura, 49, updated his official X (formerly Twitter) account by the 4th, laying out why he thinks Japan is “gradually growing poorer.”
Nishimura posted: “Japan can’t even get Uber’s ride-sharing off the ground, yet in America both taxis and trucks are going driverless.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Japan got burned to the ground in the war — did they seriously not do any proper city planning afterward?
Come on, Horie! Aaaaah!!!! (referring to entrepreneur Takafumi Horie, a.k.a. "Horiemon")
Horie
Hiroyuki
Where did they end up going such different ways? (three famous Japanese entrepreneurs: Rakuten's Hiroshi Mikitani, Takafumi Horie, and Hiroyuki Nishimura)
In America, people are losing their homes even as their incomes go up — that's the actual situation. Is this guy an idiot who only looks at the raw numbers?
It's "chotto-zutsu," not "chotto-zutsu" spelled the old way — scary that the writer's Japanese is this shaky. (the article uses an outdated/incorrect kana spelling of "little by little")
Even if it's self-driving, the owner is still a company or a person, and they're probably carrying serious insurance, right?
With the yen this weak, "gradually" doesn't even begin to cover it — and by the way, it's "chotto-zutsu," not "chotto-zutsu" the way you spelled it. Your Japanese is the impoverished one here lol
https://x.com/24newseveryday/status/1783342167240409126
Comparing Japan to America nonstop is the mistake to begin with.
People who worship America are the ones dragging Japan down. Compare it to Germany or Italy instead.
Places like that already exist — foreign staff do the cooking and serving. The only Japanese person involved is an owner nobody's ever even seen.
What are you even talking about (エアプ, "fake experience" — slang for someone clearly bluffing)? That's what the navigation system is for.
Thai tourists are literally coming here saying "Japan is so cheap!" — it's over.
Well yeah, working hours dropped sharply all at once. Of course that happened.
> Human-driven cars kill more people in accidents
Where's that stat from (lol)? Don't tell me that's raw counts and not rates?
And besides, self-driving cars aren't even running on the tangled, nerve-wracking roads that put human drivers on edge in the first place.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Japan did lift a conditional “Japan-style ride-share” system in 2024, but it can only operate under a taxi company’s management — a direct-matching model like Uber’s isn’t permitted. Meanwhile, U.S. driverless taxis, run by companies like Waymo, have only gone commercial in a handful of cities such as Phoenix and San Francisco, so the impression that “driverless cars are everywhere in America” is somewhat more exaggerated than reality. In the thread, opinions split over how to interpret the data claiming self-driving reduces accidents, and over who bears responsibility when an accident does happen. Note that several replies aimed personal attacks at specific politicians over frustration with the weak yen and rising prices; those have been excluded from this article.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Geinou/Sports Breaking News+) thread “Hiroyuki says Japan is “gradually growing poorer” — what’s the big difference with the U.S.?“
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