There's no real campaign against smoking in Japan. The most "anti-tobacco" ads you see are about making sure you don't bother people around you when you smoke. And they don't really work, because smokers in Japan are completely inconsiderate of people around them. In Europe I have seen many smokers asking in restaurants before lighting one "does it bother you if I smoke?" but in Japan this would extraordinary to hear that.

So, yeah, Japan, people, politeness, respect, etc... well yeah, it kind of works, but in many situations it's sub-standard.

Most restaurants have smoking and non-smoking areas, and I guess people figure that if you're in the smoking area you at least agree to deal with the smoke. And, if you're in a restaurant that doesn't have a non-smoking area, well you're also totally free to not go to that restaurant, you know?

I'll remind you that this is basically the same attitude that you saw in the entire West up until about ten years ago before smokers became Worse Than Hitler and people stopped caring if they lived in a Nanny State.

> Most restaurants have smoking and non-smoking areas, and I guess people figure that if you're in the smoking area you at least agree to deal with the smoke. And, if you're in a restaurant that doesn't have a non-smoking area, well you're also totally free to not go to that restaurant, you know?

Except that most of the facilities are completely inadequate, and you know, when I'm sitting in a non-smoking area and the smoking area is just the table next to me, with no separation whatsoever, well we have a problem. And even when they are vaguely separated, it's through a thin half-sized wall which does not prevent the smoke from moving around. It's THAT ridiculous.

> I'll remind you that this is basically the same attitude that you saw in the entire West up until about ten years ago before smokers became Worse Than Hitler and people stopped caring if they lived in a Nanny State.

Maybe, but in Japan there's no sign of smokers being ostracized at all. They are perfectly tolerated and I don't see many people complaining about them. That's part of the problem.

>It's THAT ridiculous.

See second point i.e. "well you're also totally free to not go to that restaurant, you know?"

>That's part of the problem.

I don't think that it is. I don't smoke (aside from the very occasional cigar), but I certainly don't need to ostracize smokers either, and unless they are smoking in a place where it is explicitly forbidden, I don't need to complain about them either.

Problem, it's very difficult to find non-smoking restaurants or bars in Japan. You are exposed to smoke wherever you go as a non-smoker. So your solution is, I shouldn't go out ?

Yeah, sounds fair and reasonable.

> smokers became Worse Than Hitler

Interesting comparison, given that Hitler was an ardent non-smoker and the Nazis instituted one of the first public anti-tobacco campaigns:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tobacco_movement_in_Nazi_G...

They do know better but what I witnessed in Japan was wayyy too much group think going on and not enough individualism.

That's probably why there hasn't been that many successful startups in Japan when there's a population of over 100mm ppl.

Startups or not, and getting a little off-topic, it will still be thrilling to see a humanoid land on the moon, perhaps even more thrilling than seeing a human doing the same thing.

And just for fun (because I like the story), according to the Wikipedia article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soichiro_Honda, Mr. Honda had a little "startup" going in elementary school:

"Honda was not interested in traditional education, his school handed grade reports to the children, but required that it will be returned stamped with the family seal, to make sure that a parent had seen it. Soichiro created a stamp to forge his family seal out of a used rubber bicycle pedal cover. The fraud was soon discovered when Honda started to make forged stamps for other children. Honda did not realize that the stamp had to be mirror-imaged. His family name 本田 was symmetrical when written vertically, so it did not cause a problem, but some of other children's family names were not."

Could you name a country, where the majority of college-educated population is unlikely to feel comfortable speaking or reading English, where there has been many successful startups?

I'm trying to see whether my hypothesis that "country with successful startups" correlates with "country where the potential startup demographic is likely to be exposed to Silicon Valley ideas" holds up.