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It would be interesting to see how the concept of FIRST would translate into the culture of Japan.
Many new teams dont 'get it' in their rookie year, and focus on building a winning robot, and worry about things like 'what kind of image will our team portray for our corporate sponsor.
After teams have been around for a year or two, they realize FIRST is not a robot building contest - its not a contest at all - its a way to introduce HS students to engineering, to give them firsthand experience of what its like to BE an enginner
The only goal of FIRST is to inspire students to pursues careers in science and technology.
I have no doubt that FIRST would love to see the program catch on in countries all around the world. When one group of people advances the state of the art of technology, people benefit everywhere.
But as you alluded to, the business and social culture in Japan is very different than it is in the US - I can picture a company like Sony putting a hundred engineers on the team, designing a state of the art machine to win the championship - thinking that is what FIRST is all about
you can always tell which teams dont 'get it' yet - its the ones with adults yelling at the students in the pits, or after loosing a match :c(
another thing to consider - it would be extreemly expensive for a team from Japan to travel to the chamionship in Atlanta, Georgia. If FIRST teams do spring up in Japan it would be more cost effective if several teams were created at once, and a regional were held in Japan
whenever you have a choice of spending more money on one team, or creating more teams, I always vote for more teams.
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