Tomohiko Kezuka is a Japanese social media marketer who I met on Mixi, Japan’s Facebook-like social networking site. By mashing up a little of my sketchy Japanese and his rather good English, we were able to discuss Japanese social media – and how people and companies there are responding to it.

How old are you, where do you live, and what do you do for work?

“I am 24 years old and I live in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. I am in a website property manager. For fun, I’m into reading social media blogs, Twitter & FriendFeed.”

What is the speed and cost of internet in Tokyo? How much is mobile phone plan?

“It costs about 70 dollars a month to get 100Mbps (!!!) access. If you sign up through some discount campaigns at some site (ex. kakaku.com), it will be about 30 dollars.

Mobile costs about 70 dollars a month with unlimited data.”

What are the most popular social media sites in Japan?

image: H. Yoshikawa

Social Networking Sites:
Mixi is the most popular social networking site in Japan. GREE and Mobage-town are specialized mobile social networking that draw people in by selling flashy avatars and games.

Blogs:

• Ameba
• FC2
• Livedoor

Ameba offers a blog hosting service, like Wordpress.com or Blogger. By inviting television personalities to blog and participate, Ameba’s traffic is growing rapidly.

Forums:

• 2ch
• Yahoo! Japan

2channel is the largest forum – featuring images and discussions. It’s what the English site 4chan is based on. Yahoo! was one of the first major internet portals to gain mainstream popularity in Japan, and it still has many dedicated users.

New Media / Digital Content:

• Japanese YouTube
• Niconico-douga (Smile Video)
• pixv

Pixiv is a community site where artists can post illustrations. They keep on growing at a fast pace, 1 million users in 655 days, 700 million page views a month!

Although it doesn’t penetrate the mainstream as much as other social media sites, Twitter is also getting popular.

I’ve noticed Japanese people rarely show their face for their picture / avatar. Why?

I have 8 friends on Mixi, and none of them show their faces in avatars.
Their albums are often collections of “interesting” pics, not pics of themselves or friends.

“Anonymity is a part of the culture here. I think many Japanese people are ashamed and anxious that their ‘internet personality’ will be discovered by real friends or colleagues. Some anonymous power users, using pseudonyms, have a lot of authority in Japanese social media.

On top of that, many believe anonymity helps protect people from crime and harassment, especially in the mobile social media for young people.”

Are there any differences between how Japanese use social media and
how westerners use social media?

“From what I have observed, I think westerners have a far greater tendency to use social media for personal branding.”

Are there a many online narcissists (自分が大好きな人) in Japanese social
media?

“Yeah, there are. You can find them at Mixi, Niconico-douga, 2channel and the rest.”

Japanese has 3 alphabets: katakana, hiragana, and kanji. Do people
try to do SEO and rank for terms using different alphabets?

“Yes. Many people try to do so to cover uncompetitive markets. In addition to 3 Alphabets problem, thinking how we translate certain overseas business idioms is important. For example, SEO is spelled in several different ways, エスイーオー, えすいーおー, SEO, 検索エンジン最適化, サーチエンジン最適化. But since search engines try to standardize each results, it is becoming a much less useful tactic than it was a few years ago.”

Are their any viral campaigns that English-speaking people might understand or think is interesting?

UNIQLOCK – A Dance Music Photo Clock
http://www.uniqlo.jp/uniqlock/
http://www.uniqlo.jp/uniqlock/#world

Who is the top “social media rockstar” in Japan?

“No one really comes to mind.”

(Editor’s note: Maybe because people are more anonymous and less likely to use social media for personal branding.)

Is social media changing Japan’s conservative company culture?

“I think that the conservative industries are changing, though reluctantly and only gradually. They are trying to use blogs, social networking sites and Twitter. I was surprised that some newspapers are starting to use Twitter.”

http://twitter.com/asahi/
http://twitter.com/mainichijpedit

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