Vision of the future, from 1969 Japan

Matt Alt in Tokyo, following up on a recent BB post about a 1979 American view of the future, shares this wonderful scan. He says:

This is 1969's view of 1989! It's from Shonen Sunday Magazine, a weekly comic compilation. Beautiful, groovy art. Hey, at least they got the "Roomba" right (even if they were off by a few decades!)

• [Stephen Schenck]

  In the future, we’ll all be so amazed all the times that our jaws will just hang agape?

• [planettom]

  Once I see it I can’t unsee it — the chairs seem kind of… tentacle-y.

• [jwkrk]

  The future is zentai.

• [grimc]

  Well, they got the robot vacuum and the skinny jeans right.

  • [paul]

     FWIW it was a common quip among AI types in the early 80s that japanese robotic vacuums would be cleaning american smart tanks. 0 for 2.

• [vrplumber]

  The future won’t happen until we all get on the same page and start wearing our space footie pajamas.

  • [Ladyfingers]

     Looks like blue tights and ballet flats to me, so we’re already there.

• [benher]

  At least things like the “Automatic vacuum” in the lower left and the “TV Phone” came to pass in somewhat different states. 

  I like the “Antenna” attached to the Iron (lower right corner)… Wi-fi? 

• [musesum]

  Secret message? For some reason, am tempted to print this out and attempt an Al Jaffee fold-in – as you’d find in the back of Mad Magazine – perhaps revealing a pre-akira-techno-evangelionic rapture. Or is this merely wishful thinking?

  • [Preston Sturges]

    Entirely possible, it is manga  
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weekly_Sh%C5%8Dnen_Sunday
    In the US we associate this sort of futurism with Popular Science type magazines, not fiction

• [Preston Sturges]

  The guys are wearing spandex jumpsuits with dickies. 

  Are dickies making a comeback at least in a retro ironic way?

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickey_(garment)

  “….. Cloth turtleneck-style dickeys are still sometimes seen, for example on the TV series The Big Bang Theory, worn by the character Howard Wolowitz, as well as in Dinner for Schmucks character Therman Murch, played by Zach Galifianakis wore an orange turtleneck dickey. Cousin Eddie, character played by Randy Quaid, in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” wore a dark green turtleneck dickey underneath an ivory sweater. The character Liz Lemon wore a “sweater” type dickie on the opening episode of season 6 on the TV series 30 Rock.[2]….”

• [jacmac]

  In the future, our ankles will be thinner…

  • [malindrome]

    Well, it’s future Japan, so everything is thinner.  Future America looks more like the human characters in WALL-E.

• [joe blough]

  the cool thing about this is that the illustration is titled “computer life”. also i wonder if this was from a kids’ publication as it has furigana over most if not all of the kanji…

  • [twianto]

    Well, yeah, obviously for kids. The first sentence (lower right) reads: “In 20 years, when you’ll be adults and work, computers will be an inseparable part of life.”

• [beepbeep]

  I really like the Star Trek NG clothing! 

• [vdev]

  I love the hairstyle, So this is where Princess Leia started !

• [Ladyfingers]

  Syd Mead or GTFO.

• [JhmL]

  Wh… what? Future is drag?

• [Boundegar]

  In the future, Japanese people will become Caucasian.

  • [SmokingHeartDesigns]

     That desire does exist.

• [mrfixitrick]

  The future is now. Check out Keshe Foundation’s vision for levitating cars, instant travel, and even food and water made from air…
  http://www.keshefoundation.org/en/applications/transportation

  • [paulj]

    Wow. Thanks for that view into contemporary internet crack-pottery. I haven’t seen anything that demented since the time cube guy.

  • [teapot]

    Yeah this was awesome thanks!

• [MarlboroTestMonkey7]

  Well, it seems fairly accurate to me.

• [Mitch_M]

  A future where people are not walking around starting at their internet-crack-phones? I like it!

  • [wrybread]

    But they are staring at their internet-crack phones. Everyone here is staring at a computer. And by the looks of them, they’re being social with other people (as opposed to computer games or whatever), which to me is the most striking thing they got right.

• [StCredZero]

  They even got the yellow haze of pollution looking out the window at the sky. 

  • [malindrome]

    I know, right?  It appears that future Tokyo looks a lot like modern day Beijing.

• [Analog Kid]

  SKYPE!

• [greggman]

  I always loved that retro future thing
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6pUMlPBMQA

• [teapot]

  Yeah I’d say they got it all pretty right… apart from the era. All this stuff mostly exists in some form now and it makes heaps more sense with a little translation.

  Top left: “Hover Craft”
  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505164_162-57409394-10391734/american-flying-car-soars-in-test-flight/ 
  http://www.moller.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=57

  Guy in top left is playing/watching some kind of 3D/realistic television

  Then you got the Roomba

  Top middle you got a news computer (OK, we don’t print our own physical copy though)

  Then you got the dude using Skype (Though its called a television something)

  Then you got the girl using what translates something like “Personal home computer”

  Then you got the iron (OK, this working prototype isn’t for sale and looks kinda different)
  http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/the-dressman-automatic-iron-by-114038 

  Top right you got a dish washing robot

  Below that you got an automatic food table
  http://boingboing.net/2012/06/14/vending-machines-of-loving-gra.html  (?)

  • [twianto]

    Your “television something” says テレビ電話 or “video phone” which has existed for a long time but was just a fad for most of its existence. Also, the dude on the left is using a “3D TV”; again, just a fad without any real practical applications.

    This is a collection of obsolete fads if you ask me (well, except for the hovercraft maybe…).