This is so cool. I had assumed that since Japan is a hub for electronics they would have dryers.
Is this possibly due to a minamilist culture? Case in point, traditional dining areas lack chairs and they kneel by the table on the floor?
This is so cool. I had assumed that since Japan is a hub for electronics they would have dryers.
Is this possibly due to a minamilist culture? Case in point, traditional dining areas lack chairs and they kneel by the table on the floor?
It might have to do more with space. I think most major cities in Japan are, well, quite populated, especially Tokyo. This means apartments and houses tend to be smaller and tightly packaged, so there's no space for an extra machine when you could have one that sort of does both things.
I agree, have you ever seen Japanese hotels? The sleeping quarters are like drawers.
They do have dryers, but most people don't buy them, presumably because of space issues. Houses and apartments in Japan are designed with a place to put your washing machine. Usually this space is just big enough to fit one machine. That's why dryers here are often two-in-one.
There are also stacked units where the dryer is on top of the washing machine. I don't know if these work better or not, but I'm pretty sure they are much more expensive.
I think ventilation and building codes also account for the difference. If I remember correctly, in the States, dryers must have a vent that releases some of the heat they produce outside of the house. Japanese apartments/houses aren't equipped with such vents.
In addition to space, it's expensive to run a dryer. Our energy bill is already crazy expensive without a dryer. Actually, the clothes dry pretty fast out on the balcony. Only during the colder months is it more challenging so the clothes are hung in one of the rooms with the air-con and they dry pretty quickly.
Japan is strange. I too always had the image of high tech, but living there you realize we're more high tech i the states, at least in Cali.
There definitely is a strange barrier where the great technology they have here isn't incorporated into daily life for some reason. Like the perpetual usage of fax machines here. It's amazing to me that people still use the things, but at the same time, it makes sense here: keeping people busy, having a tangible message you can hold in your hand, encouraging people to interact and reinforce office relations, being able to file something, these are all valued here. Maybe they are even valued over convenience. I'm not sure. It's a difficult are to make sense of.