I just opened my VK account. In case my Twitter or Facebook accounts are banned, I need to have some escape from those diplomatic sanctions. I own aoyamacapital.com domain, so accounts suspension does not immediately mean I don’t have any means to say something. But for marketing and attracting customers, I need stores on SNSs. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, possibly YouTube, and so on. One sometimes has an opinion that is regarded as not suitable for those platforms. When “they” don’t like what I say, they just eliminate an account.
VK is the 14th most visited website worldwide. Pavel Durov created it in 2006 and is sometimes called “Russian Facebook.” VK stands for “В Конта́кте,” which means “in contact.” Pavel also founded Telegram Messenger in 2013.
In the present times, you have to diversify not only your investment portfolio but also your “SNS portfolio.” When I started studying at the economics faculty in 2010, they told me not to “put all your eggs in one basket.” No time has it been as accurate as it is today. Aoyama Capital has a Telegram channel and VK community.
Moreover, I find VK’s UI and UX are much better than that of Facebook. Facebook is slow to load, provides an awkward search experience, and made users’ data public. VK’s iPhone App is also very superb in UI and UX. VK community page is much easier to launch, edit, and view than a Facebook page. There are communities of major Russian companies such as Rosneft. For example, they report that President Putin introduced Narendra Modi to Russia’s largest shipyard in 2019. I can’t get this kind of information on the mainstream media, so it is beneficial.
VK and Telegram are much better than Twitter DM or Facebook messenger – especially in Japan. Via Telegram or VK, people who don’t understand English can’t reach out to me, which is very suitable for my mental health. On VK, I sometimes receive messages in Russian. They are very polite, and letters are appropriately composed. So I reply to those in the same manner. On the other hand, on Japan’s Internet, people tend to get rude and irritating messages or comments from anonymous users. Some people get mentally ill from those violent languages and even commit suicide.
Young Japanese people are exhausted. They lack motivation and are very pessimistic. Suicide is the leading cause of death for teenagers, 20s, and 30s in Japan. During high economic growth(1954-1973), the number of people who commit suicide was in the downward trend. The digit was at most 15,000 per year. More than 20,000 people killed themselves each year past ten years. Meanwhile in Russia, which is also notorious for the high rate of suicide, the rate is continuously declining.
Let’s compare the population pyramid of both countries. While in the Japanese population, the 20s and 30s only account for 21.2% of the population, in the Russian population, the 20s and 30s account for 28.2%. Due to the two baby booms, Japan has an unusual population composition with a prominent number of people in their 40s and 70s.
Especially people in their 40s (and some 50s) are notorious for being “Mr. not-working.” They tend to lack digital skills and motivation but receive a disproportionately high salary due to Japan’s lifetime employment system. This deprives the youth of motivation and prospect. What is worse, you can’t talk about this kind of theme in Japan, which prevents constructive discussion. (That’s why I write in English and find escape in Telegram or VK.)
After the corona pandemic, however, something radical could change the whole thing. The Japanese companies need able and ambitious people regardless of nationality. Digitalization and remote working experience made Japanese management re-think of employment. Japanese companies will also irreversibly promote diversification. The number of foreign workers in Japan has tripled in the ten years since 2009. This trend continues. There are plenty of opportunities for you to get a job in Japanese companies. So read my articles and prepare for that.