This post is not specific to Kumamoto. It has to do with the treatment of consumers in Japan vs. other countries more generally.
Today I am finally getting around to unsubscribing from e-mail services (commercial ads and non-commercial announcements, exhortations, etc.) I don’t need and that are making it harder for me to get to the messages that are important to me.
Well, since I’m doing this all at once, I’ve noticed a significant difference between the relative difficulty / ease of unsubscribing from Japanese vs. non-Japanese services. The non-Japanese services usually have an “unsubscribe” link at the end of the e-mail that takes you to a webpage where you complete the unsubscription process with one additional, easy click. The Japanese services, however, tend to be a pain in arse (pardon my Old Norse). The “no more mail, please” process usually involves several steps, such as typing in a password, responding to an e-mail, going through many pages on a website, etc. Finding the appropriate places to click on the websites can also be like finding a needle in a haystack. My Japanese is fine (I have no difficulty reading Japanese) but still the process can be a major pain nonetheless.
The worst one I experienced today was JR Kyushu. I had to log in and was then was presented with menus that had nothing to do with unsubscription (in fact, I appeared to be registering for something new, though that was not actually the case). I had to look for instructions on how to unsubscribe before I was finally able to figure it out.
Japan is often lauded for it’s excellent service. Indeed, there are many examples of fine service to be observed here. But it is also true that consumers can be treated rather badly in certain circumstances, either because of poor design and/or ignorance or because corporate interests are allowed to come before consumer interests. I think the stark difference I have observed between unsubscription systems in Japan and English-speaking countries probably results from a mixture of both.
– Kirk
P.S. The image is the one I was first presented with when I attempted to enter JR Kyushu’s unsubscription labyrith.