Enterprise Postgres Growth in Japan
BRUCE MOMJIAN

This talk explores why Japan was such an early adopter of Postgres, and how Japanesedevelopers move Postgres forward.
https://momjian.us/presentations

Creative Commons Attribution License

Last updated: November 2021

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Outline

1. Outsider
2. Early years
3. Domestic use
4. Global engagement

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1. Outsider

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Alexis de Tocqueville• French political philosopher• Visited the United States for ninemonths in 1831-1832• Wrote Democracy in America• “Tocqueville saw democracy as anequation that balanced liberty andequality, concern for the individual aswell as for the community.”• Saw the USA clearer than native citizens,still quoted today
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2. Early Years

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Tatsuo Ishii• Started with Postgres in 1991 (fiveyears before me)• Wrote first Postgres book in 1998
• Helped create the first Postgres usergroup

https://postgresql.life/post/tatsuo_ishii/
https://pgsqlpgpool.blogspot.com

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Re: 7.2 is slow?

• December 2001 report from Ishii-san• 2x slower than Postgres 7.1• Quad-CPU-socket server• What are the Japanese doing withPostgres?

https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/20011217133001.A90515%40ilse.nl#f4435b953e2572301fda525cb5a33da4
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My First Visit to Asia

My first:• Visit to Asia, December 2000
• Postgres conference• Postgres interview, “Would you say that
PostgreSQL is now ready fore-business?”• Met Ruby author Yukihiro Matsumoto(left to right) Hiroshi Inoue, me, TatsuoIshii
https://lwn.net/2001/features/Momjian/
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The Jerry Lewis Period• USA entertainer who became more
popular outside his country• Will I ever know why Postgres ispopular in Japan?
• Does Japan represent the future ofother countries?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Lewis
https://www.straightdope.com/21342501/do-the-french-really-love-jerry-lewis

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3. Domestic Use

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Japan PostgreSQL User Group (JPUG)• Mailing list started in 1996 by Ishii-san• Organization formed in 1999
• Non-profit formed in 2006
• Manage mailing list and hold regular
events in Japan

Ship-board event in October 2006
https://www.postgresql.jp/npo/about
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SRA• Employed me from 2001 to 2006
• Created Pgpool in 2003
• Developed a commercial version ofPostgres for Windows• contributed that code to help with thecommunity port in 2003

• Created SRA OSS in 2005

https://www.sra.co.jp/en/
https://www.sraoss.co.jp/

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Fujitsu• March 2003 meeting at Fujitsu to
discuss adding tablespace control toPostgres• Finally added in 2005
• Fujitsu used Postgres source code in its
Syfoware product• Fujitsu Australia Software Technology(FAST)• Eventually developed their own versionof Postgres
https://www.linkedin.com/company/fujitsu-australia-software-technology/about/https://www.postgresql.fastware.com/

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NTT• Ranked 43rd in Forbes Global 2000 for
2021• Created the NTT OSS Center for
Postgres in 2003
• Developed many tools for Postgres• https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/NTT• https://github.com/ossc-db

https://www.rd.ntt/e/sic/team_researchers/team/251.html
https://www.ntt-review.jp/archive/ntttechnical.php?contents=ntr201802fa5.html

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Domestic Use Trends• Software is global, not controlled by a single country or company• Effective multi-character set support• Focus on Japan domestic usage• Easy for companies to create closed-source products for the Japanese market (e.g.,SRA, Fujitsu) or customize for internal use (e.g., NTT)
• Tooling for Postgres developed by mostly Japanese teams (e.g., Pgpool)

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4. Global Engagement

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First Postgres Conference Outside of Japan

15% from Japan; Toronto, July 2006
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Global Engagement Challenges• Flat organizational structure• English language communication• Distance• Time zone differences

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Postgres 13 Success

Marc Linster, EDB
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Postgres 14 Success• 18% of Postgres features were developed by people from Japan• 17% of current Postgres committers are from Japan

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/14/release-14.html
https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Committers
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Global Engagement Trends• Japanese developers operating on the global stage• receiving training• Japanese companies influencing database server development, e.g., high availability

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Conclusion

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