Comments on: Why Facebook is not popular in Japan?

By: kirin

kirin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:25:51 +0000

It's a chicken-and-egg story. Most of us had the impression that internet sphere is a scary place at first, and that's why we thought it's safer not to use our real names and pictures. Most of us like to do that for protection of identity and privacy. But lately I find more and more people are joining Facebook, and so the things are changing….I guess. :p

By: Guillermo Condado

Guillermo Condado — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:24:55 +0000

mmm i always wondered why japanese didn't use to show their real picture and names, i prefer people to use their real names and pictures because that way i feel safe, i feel im talking to a real person and not a spammer or scammer

By: kirin

kirin — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:48:29 +0000

Yes, I know. This post is kinda old. Nowadays Facebook is getting popular and some people are switching from mixi to FB.

By: NI jobs

NI jobs — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 22:31:47 +0000

I dont believe that this is the case. I think that Facebook is definately becoming popular. I live in Japan and me and all my friends use it all the time.

By: kirin

kirin — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 02:12:55 +0000

Ohhhh! I remembered something! Some people told me the Japanese and the Finnish or the Scandinavian or Swedish (I forgot which one it was) are similar in the aspect that we are basically shy. It may not be proper to call it "shy" and there may be a better way of expression…but you know what I mean. ^ ^;;

Like you said, not all of us like to be anonymous online, but many do. It's the same. ^ ^

By: mesikammen

mesikammen — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:21:54 +0000

I'm from Finland and many of the bloggers here are also anonymous. Not all, but quite many. There sure are also those who like to keep blog with their own name.

Facebook is very popular in Finland, though. But I do know some Finns who have anonymous names also there… thats an option (real sounding anonymous name) if one would like to be on Facebook but not with own name.

I need to add that I totally love japanese culture, its history, its positive crazy creativeness, humor (you have THE best gameshows ever! + I wish we hand kancho-culture too!), its women (Aki Hoshinoooo! ), shinto, judo, music… and so on. All the best! Come visit Moominland!

By: kirin

kirin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:11:34 +0000

"autofiction"…I didn't even know this word, but it seems the word that describes how we use an avatar and a nickname instead of revealing ourselves.

I have no idea if that has anything to do with Zen. Before internet has become this popular, people were scared about it because there were many scams and frauds, and people were not sure about protection or safety. While online shopping was not as popular as today, people avoided it in Japan because they felt it was insecure to type credit card no. and personal information online.

So I think we naturally had this thought without knowing:
Internet is convenient but it's an insecure place, so it's better we make use of it but keeping guard on anything personal.

We installed security soft, shop at online store with https page, but blog and social network…the best solution was to make use of it but as a fintionalised identity.

But time has passed since I wrote this article, and it seems more people enjoy Facebook in Japan. ^ ^;

By: kirin

kirin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:54:49 +0000

Oh! Thank you for your comment. It's good to know some people would do the same as what I do. ^ ^;;

By: mesikammen

mesikammen — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:48:54 +0000

Interesting post, thank you! I would keep Kirin and not use real name – that's what I'm doing too

By: frances

frances — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:23:56 +0000

I am doing an article about autofiction and how popular it has become in Japan. I am curious as this is a relatively new genre of writing and is slow enough to get going in europe. Is autofiction popular because the identity of the author is fictionalised ? Seems to be similar to what you mentioned about Facebook and Blog attitudes in Japan . Can you shed any light > Zen philosophy ? Distrust of public ?? thank you and enjoyed your article .. Fran