When I was in Japan a decade ago, email was still rare, the electricity bill requires someone to come to your home and calculate it each month, the ATM wouldn’t work on weekends after certain hours or on holidays, a lot of paperwork to do anything, and other little gotchas like that, that made it feel far behind at times.

They are still far ahead when it comes to baths and toilets though. The infrastructure is also superior to anything anywhere else except perhaps China.