2015考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：日本武士走向没落

　　The result is that Japan’s software industry isunderdeveloped. Since 2008 Japanese software firmshave lost 20% of their market value, even assoftware firms elsewhere grew by 15%. In softwarespending relative to GDP Japan ranks 35th, aroundthe level of Saudi Arabia, according to INSEAD, abusiness school.

　　结果就是日本的软件行业未能发展起来。自从2008年，日本的软件公司损失掉了自身20%的市场价值，其他地方的软件公司却增加了15%的市场价值。根据一个商学院欧洲工商管理学院的说法，日本软件花费占GDP的比例排名35位，和沙特阿拉伯处于一个水平。

　　Japanese code has tended to be inferior, says William Saito, an entrepreneur who sold hissoftware company to Microsoft years ago. This is because it mirrored the shortcomings ofJapan’s business culture: it was written in a hierarchical way that outsiders would have troublebuilding on, when the trend in America and Europe was exactly the opposite.

　　几年前把自己的软件公司卖给微软的企业家威廉•齐藤说，日本人的编码水平趋于下降。这是因为这反映了日本商业文化的缺陷：日本以分层次的方式编码，外人在此基础上编制是有困难的，而美国和欧洲的编码趋势却恰恰与之相反。

　　A transition is under way, however. Firms such as Rakuten, an online shopping mall, andDeNA, a developer of games for mobile devices, have reached global prominence. So has TrendMicro, a big security software firm. Small companies are succeeding too, such as Cybozu, whichmakes collaboration software. And Japan has begun filing international software-relatedpatents galore (see chart). Only America files more.

　　无论如何，正在进行转变。像网上购物中心Rakuten公司和开发移动设备游戏的DeNA公司，已经成了全球领航者。一个大的安全软件公司Trend Micro也是如此。小公司，例如开发协同软件的Cybozu公司也赶上来了。日本已经开始申请了大量与软件相关的专利，但是美国申请的更多。

　　An example of Japan’s shift to software is Ruby, a programming language that undergirds bigwebsites such as those of Twitter and Groupon. It was created in Japan by Yukihiro Matsumoto,and counts 1m developers around the world. Marc Benioff, the boss of Salesforce.com, a large“cloud computing” firm in Silicon Valley, sees opportunities everywhere in Japan. Over the pastyear the company paid $212m for Heroku, which develops web services based on Ruby, andacquired stakes in Synergy Marketing, Uhuru and Netyear, three business-software firms.

　　日本向软件转变的一个例子是Ruby，它是一种加强像Twitter和Groupon这类大网站的程序编制语言。它被日本人松本行弘创制，是全世界1000名开发人员的成果。位于硅谷的大型云计算公司Salesforce.com的老板马克•贝尼奥夫，看到日本无处不在的商机。过去的几年，这个公司为Heroku花费了21.2万美元，Heroku基于Ruby开发网页服务，并且该公司获得了三个商业软件公司Marketing、Uhuru 和Netyear的风险投资。

　　Old hardware companies want a slice of the softwaresashimi. Most are looking abroad. On July 1st NTT,Japan’s incumbent telecoms operator, said it wouldacquire OpSource, a cloud-computing software firmin California, for $90m through its South Africansoftware subsidiary, Dimension Data, which NTTacquired last year for $3.3 billion. Hitachi and Toshibaare hunting for software firms, too. Fujitsu, a bighardware firm, already gets two-thirds of its revenueand nearly all its profits from software and services.

　　老的计算机软件公司想要分得软件行业的一杯羹。大部分公司正在放眼世界。7月1日日本电信运营商NTT宣布它将通过南非的软件子公司Dimension Data以9000万美元的价格收购一家位于加利福尼亚州的云计算软件公司OpSource，去年这个NTT的子公司赚了33亿美元。日立公司和东芝公司也正在搜寻软件公司。大型硬件生产企业富士，其营业额的2/3和几乎全部利润均来自于软件和服务业务。

　　Japan’s indigenous software industry faces several obstacles. The country lacks venturecapital, a vibrant stockmarket and angel investors with technical knowledge to nurture start-ups. And its big, slow firms tend to suffocate the small fry, says Fujiyo Ishiguro, the founderof Netyear, an online-marketing software firm (and one of the few female bosses of a publicly-listed company in Japan).

　　日本本土软件产业面临着很多阻碍。日本缺乏扶植初期产业的风险投资、朝气蓬勃的证券市场以及具备技术知识的天使投资人。Netyear是一家从事网络营销的企业，其创始人Fujiyo Ishiguro认为，日本一些规模庞大但发展缓慢的企业往往会制约中小企业的发展。(Fujiyo Ishiguro是日本为数不多的上市公司的女掌门。)

　　For now, hardware is king. Newspapers cheered when Riken and Fujitsu unveiled the world’sfastest supercomputer in June. But the shift towards the intangible is inevitable, says MsIshiguro. Japan’s sissies are tougher than they look.

　　目前，硬件产业仍然是日本的龙头。今年六月份，理研和富士公司联合发布了世界最快的超级计算机，媒体都对此欢呼雀跃。但是，Ishiguro女士说，向软件产业转型已经是不可避免的趋势。日本的“懦夫们”并不像他们看似那样没用!

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