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Proverb: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
It’s never easy to convince most people to change their ways and adopt new ways of doing things.
Most of them will have some reluctance to change.
Then there will always be the ones who say if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
These people will always be the ones to lag behind everyone else.
That’s why on the diffusion of innovation scale, they are called laggards.
Japan Inc. and the Japanese government have proven themselves to be laggards when it comes to digital technology adoption.
Due to the coronavirus shutdowns, most Western countries decided to give their citizens or residents cash handouts to help them through the lockdowns and income loss.
Japan did the same thing, but due to the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it attitude the government has had for decades, it experienced many difficulties following through because of a lack of capability to move quickly.
Everything in Japan requires mountains of paperwork.
It requires much human effort and time.
When time is of the essence, digitization makes everything work so much more smoothly.
Sure, paper documents function as a means to store and transport information, but is it efficient?
By its admission, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a massive weakness for the Government of Japan’s administrative services.
They are 30 years behind the other six G7 nations.
Many old systems and technology work.
However, the attitude of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it means you stay in the past while those who adopt newer, faster technologies move towards a more efficient and productive future.
It’s long past the time for a digital Japan.
Now, it’s playing catch up during a pandemic.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 62.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.
