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Having ceded the battle of the gadgets to Korea and the U.S., Japan's electronics titans need to reinvent themselves -- this time as our great protectors, apparently.
日本電子巨頭在手持設備之戰(zhàn)輸給韓國和美國之后，急需重塑自我。這一次，他們看來打算扮演守護神角色。
Harnessing moral panics, such as fear of crime or terrorism, Japan's largest tech companies are growing and investing heavily in systems for executive command and control, surveillance, and border checks. The results are the most sophisticated spy and monitoring tools ever conceived.
日本最大的高科技公司正在利用國民對犯罪或恐怖主義的恐慌心理，投入巨資打造行政命令和控制、監(jiān)視和邊境檢查系統(tǒng)。它的成果就是一系列極其復雜、令人難以想象的間諜和監(jiān)視工具。
"Japanese companies are the leaders in creating innovative surveillance technology and implementation, " according to a report from the University of Queens in Canada, published in Company/Governmental Surveillance in Japan, a journal of surveillance studies. Japan's NEC, a leader in the field, now dedicates 10% of its R&D spending to developing these systems.
“日本公司在開發(fā)創(chuàng)新性監(jiān)控技術和實施方面已處在全球領先的地位，”加拿大皇后大學(University of Queens)在日本監(jiān)控研究期刊《公司與政府監(jiān)控》(Company/Governmental Surveillance)發(fā)布的一份研究報告這樣寫道。作為該領域的領導者，日本的NEC公司投入了10%的研發(fā)支出來開發(fā)這些系統(tǒng)。
"Traditionally, Japanese governments have been keen to protect and cultivate domestic electronic companies so that they become the driving force for Japanese economic development, " explains surveillance researcher Kiyoshi Abe at Kwansei University in Japan. "So it's easy for them to develop and introduce more invasive surveillance technology, utilizing public worry and fear around rising political-military tensions between Japan and China."
“傳統(tǒng)上，日本政府一直熱衷于保護和培育國內電子企業(yè)，希望它們成為日本經濟發(fā)展的推動力，”日本關西大學( Kwansei University)監(jiān)控研究員小島清解釋說。“所以，對于它們來說，在日本和中國的政治和軍事緊張局勢持續(xù)加深，公眾深感擔憂和恐懼之際，開發(fā)、推出更具侵入性的監(jiān)控技術是件非常容易的事情。”
Nor is this exclusively Japan Inc.'s agenda. Corporations worldwide are cashing in on deployment of electronic spying and monitoring. The global security software market grew 7.9% in 2012, according to research from Gartner, driven by "new threats and working practices."
不過，這也并不是日本公司的專屬領地。電子偵察和監(jiān)視設備的部署正在為世界各地的相關公司帶來滾滾財源。根據(jù)高德納咨詢公司(Gartner)的研究，2012年，在“新威脅和新工作方式”的驅動下，全球安全軟件市場增長了7.9%。
Japanese companies, however, appear to be among the vanguard in this space. At a recent NEC tech exhibition in Tokyo, absent were the computer monitors and laptops that once characterized the firm. In their place were booths dedicated to data surveillance and face recognition systems marketed as "technologies to safeguard lives and property."
然而，日本企業(yè)似乎正處于這個市場空間的先鋒行列。最近在東京舉行的一次NEC技術展上，我們看不到這家公司昔日的代表性產品，比如電腦顯示器和筆記本電腦。取而代之的，是一些專門陳列數(shù)據(jù)監(jiān)視和人臉識別系統(tǒng)的展臺。NEC的營銷口號聲稱，這些都是用來“保障生命和財產安全的技術。”
The eye-catching "safety solutions" include programs aimed at snooping on workers -- known as "performance monitoring" in the industry -- and an application dubbed the Mental Health Check Tool. As we grow accustomed to business and the state harnessing the tools of the Information Age to scrutinize everything we do and say -- privacy is no longer a social norm, claims Facebook's (FB) Mark Zuckerberg. Japanese technology, it seems, is going one step further: enabling corporations to monitor our feelings.
這些引人注目的“安全解決方案”包括旨在窺探員工的方案（業(yè)內的行話叫“性能監(jiān)控”），和一個被稱為心理健康檢查工具(Mental Health Check Tool)的應用程序。隨著我們越來越習慣企業(yè)和國家利用“信息時代”的工具來審查我們的一言一行，用Facebook公司掌門人馬克•扎克伯格的話說就是，隱私不再是一種社會規(guī)范。而日本的技術似乎正在向前邁出一大步：讓企業(yè)監(jiān)控我們的情緒。
Now in use by several undisclosed blue chip companies in Japan, NEC's new health tool is PC-based and can monitor the mental stability of a workforce while flagging any potential psychological problems. For Japanese management, this could prove indispensable, dealing, as they do, with one of the most overworked and stressed workforces in the developed world. (Japan is second only to South Korea in suicide rates among wealthy nations, suffering an attrition rate nearly double that of the U.S.). According to a promotional leaflet for the app, the check tool works in tandem with workers' "attendance data" and boasts benefits including addressing "lost productivity, and lost cost reduction."
NEC開發(fā)的這種新型心理健康檢查工具現(xiàn)已在好幾家沒有公開名稱的日本藍籌公司投入使用。這種基于電腦運行的工具不僅可以顯示任何潛在的心理問題，還能夠監(jiān)視員工的心理穩(wěn)定程度。這一點對于日本的管理者來說或許是不可或缺的，因為他們應對的是發(fā)達國家中最勞累、壓力最大的勞動力群體之一（在富裕國家中，日本的自殺率僅次于韓國，員工流失率幾乎是美國的兩倍）。一份宣傳單聲稱，這種檢查工具可以跟工人的“考勤數(shù)據(jù)”協(xié)同運行，它的好處包括解決“生產力損失和白費的成本降低機會”等問題。
Japanese surveillance tech also includes tools to check on the quality of train station guards' smiles and face recognition ad boards. And retailers in Japan have tracked their salespeople with GPS tech since 2002.
日本的監(jiān)視技術還包括檢查火車站售票員笑容質量的工具，以及人臉識別廣告板。早在2002年，日本的零售商就可以通過GPS技術跟蹤銷售人員。
These products were introduced without much fuss in the media or protest from the general population. Such deference to employers, some argue, means Japan is riper than most for a total surveillance society. (By contrast, consider the outrage in the U.S. prompted by revelations thatthe NSA had engaged in widespread electronic surveillance of American citizens.
這些產品的推出既沒有引發(fā)媒體一片嘩然，也沒有招致普通民眾的抗議。一些人聲稱，對于雇主的這種順從意味著，日本成為一個全面監(jiān)控型社會的條件比大多數(shù)國家更加成熟。與之形成鮮明對比的是，美國國家安全局(NSA)曾經對美國公民實施大規(guī)模電子監(jiān)控的消息一經披露立即引發(fā)美國社會各界強烈反彈。
