

Startups Upend Japan’s Famously Old-Fashioned Fish Market - hgennaro
http://www.wsj.com/articles/startups-upend-japans-fish-market-1431682201

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mc32
For a moment I thought this was for the fish market only and it seemed that
would be of limited appeal as many chefs like buying their fish in person so
as to get the flesh of the right color, fat content, exact cut, etc. But this
is trying to supplant the vast network of middletraders in as many industries
as possible.

That definitely has great potential --as much as Amazon. On the other hand,
Japan is about balance and this throws a whole sector of the economy into
disarray. The jobs are menial but do provide people with a living --what will
these people do now that they can't make a living pushing faxes and making
deliveries?

I think about those nameless guys who stock those tchotchke dispensers in
convenience stores. It's such a dreadful and unfulfilling job but it earns
someone rent money.

~~~
keslag
I think that's the wrong thing to worry about. Buggy whip craftsman, whalers,
lamplighters, and millions of defunct roles shouldn't be something we worry
about. Progress shouldn't be stunted to give people jobs. Those people, often
of low skill, need to either adapt and create their own innovations, or take
equally dire positions of low skill. It sounds harsh, but your career is your
responsibility, not someone else's problem. If you're doing something that can
be automated, assume it will be.

~~~
rpcope1
I think we are on the crux of a time where automation is going to quickly
replace more jobs than it creates; while it may not have been hard to
transition a carriage maker into a factory worker in the early 1900's, I have
strong doubts that replacement tasks will exist as the job pool potentially
shrinks this time around. As well, you must remember that while many of the
readers of HN are perhaps gifted, young individuals, there is a huge swath of
society that is not capable of "adapting or creating innovations" on the time
span needed to counter a movement like that. We can yell and patronize about
how everyone needs to pick themselves up by their bootstraps, but the reality
is usually only a select few people can actually do this, and usually only
some fraction of the time. As a sort of consequence, all of this automation
tends to concentrate the wealth, and when you have all of these people who are
not capable of making a living in society any more, this creates huge societal
problems.

I foresee a day coming that some or most software development becomes
automated, only needing a very select few to make the machine continue to
turn; it will be interesting to see what we all say then.

~~~
keslag
The day developers aren't needed is the day we no longer need jobs.

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ebiester
It's the same story we have read over the last twenty years: One
technologically-oriented intermediary replaces two or three traditional
intermediaries with half the aggregate staff. The old guard laments the loss
of small advantages coming from the old system that the market decides isn't
worth the cost.

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bascule
For what it's worth, Tsukiji is shutting down and relocating this November:

[http://www.undercurrentnews.com/2014/12/31/tsukiji-market-
re...](http://www.undercurrentnews.com/2014/12/31/tsukiji-market-relocation-
date-set-for-early-november-2015/)

~~~
adregan
I thought, for a moment, the article was about startups moving into the
Tsukiji area and threatening the fish market. Then I remembered that there's
been talk about moving the fish market for years. I lived in Tokyo for 3 years
and never woke up early enough to go see it—ate the fish, but never saw the
market.

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hgennaro
Click through from Google for the full text:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=Startups+Upend+Japan’s+Famou...](https://www.google.com/search?q=Startups+Upend+Japan’s+Famous—And+Famously+Old-
Fashioned—Fish+Market)

~~~
tomtoise
No need to click through anymore. Check this out, posted a few days ago, worth
reiterating.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9531941](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9531941)

~~~
danso
The plugin has since been pulled from the store
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wait-google-
sent-m...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wait-google-sent-
me/igloabeeeiagmdkhellmibpnlnjdmdbb)

