Throughout Japan, there are a few communities that have refused to join Juki Net. In Tokyo-to, I believe two such examples are Suginami-ku and Kunitachi-shi. There are others elsewhere. Why did these communities refuse Juki Net? I'm not sure, but I suspect they have a reasonable number of wealthy and influential people who value keeping as much privacy as possible. Considering all the blunders of government (especially) data mismanagement, including losing the national pension records of thousands of citizens, keeping as much personal data as possible out of any government's hands is the best policy.
Ah, young people these days. Some of use who finished university while Clinton was still screwing around recall life before Starbucks, when coffee was hot brown water. Then coffee shops started to open in college towns, and the people did rejoice, but they found that the coffee shops were overpriced and carried the baggage of snooty arrogant patrons, making entering a coffee shop feel like walking into a new unfamiliar bar (though with lower levels of threat to life an dlimb); the mom-and-pop was hit or miss in quality and atmosphere. Then Starbucks came and provided a standard quality and atmosphere. Pooh-pooh it all you like, but Starbucks meets the needs of many people, espsecially those who recall life before Starbucks.
In Japan, where rich dark coffee has long been common in small coffee shops, Starbucks brings a lower price, larger servings, more choices, typically a better atmosphere (modern, lit, no velvet-lined chairs, no dust around the windows), and--the real innovation--no pressure (e.g., dirty looks, unbidden cups of water) to get the hell out because you're taking up valuable real estate by overstaying. It's new here and spreading, so people become comfortable with and loyal to it.
Some people (often college kids and recent grads, as I was once) disdain Starbucks because it is Big Coffee, a corporation, evil incarnate. However, it's just a company. It hypes "social responsibility" because that appeals to certain customers willing to pay much money for a basically cheap beverage; it's probably also an effective way to preempt vocal eco-/anticapitalist shakedown groups. Many people are also willing to buy bogus moral superiority through "fair trade" no matter the economics and the results (e.g., paying people to keep using hand looms to crank out overpriced cotton cloth, thus sometimes locking people into inefficient old technologies).
If you don't like Starbucks, just don't go.
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Not wholly true.
Throughout Japan, there are a few communities that have refused to join Juki Net. In Tokyo-to, I believe two such examples are Suginami-ku and Kunitachi-shi. There are others elsewhere. Why did these communities refuse Juki Net? I'm not sure, but I suspect they have a reasonable number of wealthy and influential people who value keeping as much privacy as possible. Considering all the blunders of government (especially) data mismanagement, including losing the national pension records of thousands of citizens, keeping as much personal data as possible out of any government's hands is the best policy.
Ah, young people these days. Some of use who finished university while Clinton was still screwing around recall life before Starbucks, when coffee was hot brown water. Then coffee shops started to open in college towns, and the people did rejoice, but they found that the coffee shops were overpriced and carried the baggage of snooty arrogant patrons, making entering a coffee shop feel like walking into a new unfamiliar bar (though with lower levels of threat to life an dlimb); the mom-and-pop was hit or miss in quality and atmosphere. Then Starbucks came and provided a standard quality and atmosphere. Pooh-pooh it all you like, but Starbucks meets the needs of many people, espsecially those who recall life before Starbucks. In Japan, where rich dark coffee has long been common in small coffee shops, Starbucks brings a lower price, larger servings, more choices, typically a better atmosphere (modern, lit, no velvet-lined chairs, no dust around the windows), and--the real innovation--no pressure (e.g., dirty looks, unbidden cups of water) to get the hell out because you're taking up valuable real estate by overstaying. It's new here and spreading, so people become comfortable with and loyal to it. Some people (often college kids and recent grads, as I was once) disdain Starbucks because it is Big Coffee, a corporation, evil incarnate. However, it's just a company. It hypes "social responsibility" because that appeals to certain customers willing to pay much money for a basically cheap beverage; it's probably also an effective way to preempt vocal eco-/anticapitalist shakedown groups. Many people are also willing to buy bogus moral superiority through "fair trade" no matter the economics and the results (e.g., paying people to keep using hand looms to crank out overpriced cotton cloth, thus sometimes locking people into inefficient old technologies). If you don't like Starbucks, just don't go.