It’s probably a byproduct of what appears to be a very slow adoption of desktop computers.

When I was last in Japan (1998), I visited a number of offices where friends worked and was amazed at how few computers there were. A number of offices had one computer; many didn’t have any at all. Paperwork was still being done on paper. My trusty 233 MHz Toshiba Satellite laptop (with 96MB RAM, pretty good at the time) was probably the best computer hardware that had passed through the doors of some of those places.

On the other hand, their phones made my then-decent Sony phone seem laughable. Tiny, with far better battery life than mine, and used for messaging and games, the subway cars and trains were packed with people noodling with their phones on their long commutes.

I imagine that the computer gap has closed somewhat, but Japanese mobile phone culture is a pretty strong thing.

I have a Blackberry with some pretty awesome server-admin tools on it, but it’s best in situations where the laptop (or wifi service) isn’t readily available. I wouldn’t want to be doing ALL of my work from the tiny BB screen.