Japan and the United States are the most Blog-intensive countries in the world. Being smaller, Japan has more blogs per capita, but blogs, blogging and bloggers in Japan are quite different than those in the United States. 

  

 

 

 

Did you know.....

 

• Japanese, English and Chinese were the top three languages for blog postings(2007)

   

• More total blog postings are written in Japanese than in English (from Global Voices)

  

 

 

 

• Total number of Japanese blogs: 60.9 million (2008)

   

• New blogs: increased from 400,000 to 500,000 per month

   

• The total amount of data on all of the blogs is 42 Terrabytes

   

• 40% of Japanese Blog Postings are written on cell phones

   

• Celebrity blogger Yusuke KAMIJI's weblog is certified by Guinness World Records as the "MOST UNIQUE USERS ON A PERSONAL BLOG IN 24 HOURS" after being read by 230,755 unique visitors in one day.

  (L:graphic of Yusuke's Blog / R:photo of Yusuke KAMIJI)

 

       

 

 

A typical Japanese Blogger is....

 

• Modest: Joi Ito said that in Japan it's not socially acceptable to pursue fame

   

• About 40% of English-language bloggers said their primary goal was "to raise visibility as an authority in my field" but only 5% of Japanese bloggers said that was their primary motivation

   

• Japanese bloggers want to fit in and do not want to stand out

   

• Japanese bloggers shy away from politics and insulting language

   

• Typical Japanese bloggers write about small stuff:cats, flowers, bicycles, etc...

   

• Joi Ito said, "Blogging is like karaoke for shy people."

   

• Groups of friends use cell phones and blogs keep in touch by updating their blogs anytime, anywhere

   

• There are three factors that combine to give many Japanese an opportunity to blog everyday. One is sophisticated mobile phones, another is ubiiquitous high-speed wireless networks, and the other is long rides on commuter trains 

 

Extracting and Visualization of an Emerging Topic from the Blogspace from the University of Tokyo.

  

 

 

A typical Japanese Blog is.....

 

• Keeping a diary is a centuries old tradition in Japan

   

• Japanese children learn to keep diaries in elementary school

   

• Japanese blogger Junko Kanetsuna writes about her midday meal, and her blog

  is called "I had my lunch"(お昼ご飯たべた）

   

• She never gives bad reviews because she feels sorry for the restaurants,

  if it were to lose business because of what she wrote she would feel terrible

   

• She never reveals her inner thoughts on her blog because she doesn't want to be criticized for what she writes

 

  

 

Here are some examples.....

 

 

Fashion Blog

 

sola journal(http://scomu.jp/sola/)

 

This blog contains posts that are mainly about what the author buys.

There are also diary-type posts about what she does, food, e.t.c. too.

A woman who writes about her daily life and what she likes is typical in Japan.

Additionally, this blog uses an　"Affiliate Program", and this is typical in Japanese blogs, too.

This blog is updated almost every day, so there are many articles.

When I last went to this page (at Japan times a.m.7:30), there were six people logged on.

 

 

 

Sport Blog

 

スポーツ情報速報（http://sportsnewscast.seesaa.net/） 

 

 

This is a typical sports blog. This blogger offer us the latest news about sports from all around the region and country.

And what this blog that offers us is not only news, but also pictures every time, so people who see this blog easily understand.

 

 

Computer Blog

 

 

秋葉マップ（http://akibamap.info/）

 

 

While I was searching for a good blog about computers, I found this blog about Akihabara.

As you may know, Akihabara is a zone of Tokyo famous for computers and maid-san.

This blog tells us the news of Akihabara. For example, a new shop will be built in September,

or an event was held in the street of Akihabara.

The design is very good. Each blog is divided into categories and has many pictures.

If you check this blog every day, you will be familiar  with Akihabara!

 

 

 

Social and Economic Blog

 

 LENDERS LEND MONEY TO THEIR COUNTRY(http://www.financial-j.net/blog)

 

This blog describes what is happning in our society and economy. The author is currently following 9 topics such as what would happen to Japan if the subprime loan crisis came again, the reasons why the price of oil is continuing higher,etc.  In addition, the author writes back to comments if there are any questions.

Comments are sometimes not only for questions but also for adding informations and giving the author ideas.

The author writes blog about 20 times in a month. The article has links that show the pages where the author gets information so that we can see the other articles which are related to the posting.

 

 

 

News blog

ニュー速アワーズ(http://blog.livedoor.jp/news2chplus/)

 

This blog picks up articles about the biggest BBS Website in Japan,  called "2 channel." Because there are too many comments at the 2 channel and it makes the articles hard to read, the author picks the most impotant comments to make it easy to read. And a lot of people make comments at the 2 channel so that there are some reliable comments. People also can comment on the articles in this blog so we can see more comments and arguments about it.

 

Why Japanese people are afraid of being criticized?

 

There are some cases that called enjo, which means flaming in Japanese, when too many critical comments are sent to a blog in Japan. One menace for Japanese bloggers is 2channel, the biggest BBS website in Japan. Because it has big impact on the Internet, most of these cases of flaming begin with an article posted at 2channel. Many of such cases end up with closing of the blog which was criticized or worse; it can influence the bloggers job and personal life.

 

Life is beautiful - The exception to the rule

 

Not all Japanese blogs fit this pattern. This is a blog which is unlike the typical Japanese blogs mentioned above. The author writes about Technology. He writes his thoughts, and the articles can be a bit long and difficult, and it is sometimes critical. Commenters are also eager to argue and lots of people are arguing about the articles.

 

Interesting links and other resources

 

• Technorati  Japan

   

• The Global Voices Japan

   

• Washington Post article "Japan's Bloggers: Humble Giants of the Web"

   

• The video about the article(Japanese blogging style)

   

• Our class WIKI

 

 

This presentation is located at: http://manta.pbwiki.com/Japanese-Blogosphere