Methinks you are romanticizing a culture you don’t live in by only seeing the positives you like.

That's kind of an insulting assumption as I'm Japanese and live in Japan. So while I may have a biased opinion, I wouldn't say it's romantisizing.

In fact, I'd say you're the one that seems to be making assumptions based on snippets of our culture that you see on the internet. The weird vending machines that sell letters from your pretend grandma to used panties aren't found everywhere you go — they're in specific locations for the novelty.

Also having regular vending machines for drinks and food doesn't exactly contradict my point. The vending machines are more for the customers' convenience. They're not installed specifically for removing human contact. Yes, we lose human contact as a result, but it's a tradeoff to better serve customers whereas most companies that deploy AI support agents probably do so to save a buck.

Sorry about the rant.