Google's search hegemony has now struck fear in the hearts of our Far East neighbors in Japan, prompting the country's tech leaders to launch an initiative geared to compete with the company. According to The Financial Times, the coalition has budgeted roughly $130 million dollars for the project and is comprised of the following companies tasked with with tackling various search components: NTT Data, Toyota InfoTechnology Center and Toyota Mapmaster, NEC, Hitachi and Sony Computer Science Laboratories. There's just one problem with this plan—Japan's tech industry itself.
With Japanese engineers still stuck in 15-hour work days without the same lifetime employment that used to accompany such dedication, hardly any credit or ownership on original innovations and local Internet mavericks like Takafumi Horie (pictured right) punished for not playing the right politics, it's unlikely the coalition's effort will offer the innovation that is often born from the rough and tumble atmosphere in Silicon Valley. The more likely result is a search engine jammed into Japanese products offering the coalition more control and users less innovation. That, or maybe they'll create the next Google. But we wouldn't advise you to hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
