Curiously enough, an economy that has been in the doldrums for over a decade is leading the way to the Dick Tracey world that we always assumed would start in the US.

Japan's NTT DoCoMo is giving the Japanese consumer what they want, while US telco companies are characterised by poor customer satisfaction, moribund innovation, and massive debts hidden by tricky accountants living in multi-million dollar mansions.

Good times are not the best environment for innovation. Good times leads to laziness - to relaxing with the rewards too easily claimed. And in the not too comfortable business environment of Japan today, companies are responding with ideas squeezed out of hard times.

Over 50% of US consumers are dissatisfied with their broadband Internet service, while in South Korea and Japan we see two of the most highly advanced internet communication markets in the world. South Korea is the most wired in the world.

The Seattle Times reports that Japan and the United States are worlds apart on wireless

Extract: On the streets of Tokyo, sidewalk traffic frequently crawls along because people are simultaneously walking and tapping e-mail into their phone. You can even buy soda by pointing a cellphone at a vending machine.

What's more, the Japanese willingly pay for these services. In fiscal 2001, Japan's largest wireless carrier, NTT DoCoMo, generated $5.8 billion in revenue from users on its i-mode wireless-data service.

While Japan has its problems, it remains a vibrant telecommunications market, and not just because of the popular conception that the Japanese like gadgets. Let us not forget that Sony's Walkman and Nintendo's game products sold just as vigorously in the US.

It may well be that Asia and Japan will come out of their hard times faster than the USA. ...Besides, their hard times started quite a few years earlier...