{"id":176221,"date":"2025-10-12T09:24:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T09:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/we-are-becoming-the-japan-of-the-21st-century\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T09:24:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T09:24:05","slug":"we-are-becoming-the-japan-of-the-21st-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/we-are-becoming-the-japan-of-the-21st-century\/","title":{"rendered":"We are becoming the Japan of the 21st century."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Let’s start with the facts:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Europe ages faster than any other developed region<\/a>, especially in the South. The average age is above 44 years old and steadily increasing.<\/li>\n
  2. The big technology companies that define our era are predominantly American or Chinese, with South Korean or Taiwanese companies as rare exceptions.<\/li>\n
  3. Once-glorious European industrial giants like Nokia, Siemens, and Ericsson have transformed into B2B suppliers or corporate entities virtually invisible to consumers.<\/li>\n
  4. While we host two of the most significant technology events in the world, MWC and IFA, we primarily serve as spectators in a game dominated by others.<\/li>\n
  5. In the meantime, we focus on regulating: GDPR, AI Act, DMA, DSA. We legislate about innovations we did not invent and impose rules on games we do not play.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There is an uncomfortable but striking parallel to post-bubble \u00a0Japan\u00a0.<\/p>\n

    In the 1980s, Japan appeared poised to dominate the 21st century. Companies like \u00a0Sony\u00a0, \u00a0Panasonic\u00a0, \u00a0Toshiba\u00a0, and \u00a0Nintendo\u00a0 defined \u00a0key technologies\u00a0 that dominated the world at the close of the 20th century:<\/p>\n