1) Social media like Twitter has grown rapidly in Japan, with Japanese now being the second most used language on Twitter. 2) Twitter and live streaming services like Ustream are being used widely at academic conferences in Japan, allowing remote participation. 3) While domestic social networks in Japan like Mixi are popular, they focus on existing relationships rather than finding new contacts, and don't allow open registration, making international collaboration difficult. However, Mixi and a potential expansion of Facebook in Japan may change this. 4) The presenter recommends two new Japanese services - Lang-8 for language learning across borders, and Researchmap for academic social networking - to facilitate international connections.

1. Mastering the art of connecting in today’s global information society
2010 年 3 月 23 日
Introduction
Hi everyone. It’s a great pleasure for me to give you a short report
from Japan. I hope my speech is helpful for all of you.
Rise of Social Media in Japan
Now in Japan, new web services which called social media like
Twitter are rapidly spreading among people.
【Slide #2】
Rise of Social Media in Japan #1
Unique
4.7M
Visitors
Visits/Month 3.9Times
Time/Month 25minutes
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Here is stats that show you the growth of Twitter in Japan. How
many of you have your own account of Twitter? Please, raise your hand.
Thank you. Last year, at this conference, Ms. Tokiko Yamamoto said this is
paper version of Twitter when she handed out comment paper. Then I was so
surprised because at that time Twitter was not popular in Japan, even
among librarians in Japan.
But, situation is changing.
【Slide #3】
Rise of Social Media in Japan #2
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Especially, from last summer, users of Twitter are rapidly increasing.
According to the recent survey (2010-02) by Semiocast, a French company
specialized in web analysis, Japanese is the second major language on
Twitter. Now 50% of all tweets are in English, and 14% of all tweets are in
Japanese, which is the second dominant language in Twitter. I don't touch
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2. Mastering the art of connecting in today’s global information society
2010 年 3 月 23 日
the reasons for this phenomenon because the time is limited. Anyway,
Twitter or same kind of services may become usual and default
communication style like email. Actually, some companies are shifting their
internal communication tool from email to Twitter. So, what's happening
after Twitter is widely spreading among people in Japan? What should
librarians know to bring Japanese information and expertise into global
information exchanges?
Twitter and USTREAM as Communication Tools between Japan and USA
First of all, use of Twitter is spreading among academic societies,
especially in annual meetings like this conference.
【Slide #4】
Twitter and USTREAM as
Communication Tools #1
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Last December, when I and other experts and researchers held the
1st symposium on web science at Tokyo University, more than 10K tweets
were posted during that all-day symposium. And more than 5K people
participated in the symposium through web broadcast using USTREAM.
USTREAM is another important tool for us.
Gradually, broadcasting is spreading not only among business scenes
but also in academic fields. Just 2 weeks ago, annual meeting of Information
Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ), one of the biggest academic societies in
engineering science in Japan, was held. They streamed some sessions using
web broadcasting. It's not outstanding example. Even more humanity
societies like Association for Modern Japanese Literary Studies streamed
workshop in this month. As you may know, we can use Twitter on USTREAM,
these 2 tools have strong synergistic effects. Collaborative use of both Twitter
and USTREAM will become the standard function for conferences of
academic societies. Then, librarians in the field of Japan studies are required
to trace, collect and distribute that information at first. But how can we do
it?
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3. Mastering the art of connecting in today’s global information society
2010 年 3 月 23 日
I recommend some ways as follows. One is to use and watch the
general trend of Twitter.
【Slide #5】
Twitter and USTREAM as
Communication Tools #2
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There are some tools which visualize timeline of Twitter. For example,
“buzzter” is one of those indicators. “buzzter” shows you what the hot topic is
right now based on text analysis of public timeline.
【Slide #6】
Twitter and USTREAM as
Communication Tools #3
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A “hashtagsjp” is another choice. We can see what the hot hashtag is
in Japanese tweets.
At the end of the first topic, I want to add a little tip for finding
hashtag often used by Japanese. On the one hand, Asian language, especially,
CJK use double byte character, on the other hand, English is single byte.
Because of this difference between single and double, sometimes Japanese
users tend to use original hashtag even in English. For example, when
Japanese tweet about “ibrary, sometimes we use “#toshokan” as hashtag not
“#library” for avoiding confusion on timeline.
Social Networking Services go on Next Stage
Users of social networking services are also increaing.
【Slide #7】
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4. Mastering the art of connecting in today’s global information society
2010 年 3 月 23 日
Social Networking Services go on
Next Stage
7
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In Japan, mixi is the most popular among 3 major services. mixi has about
1.8M users (as of the end of year 2009). It is one fifth of Japanese internet
users. Unfortunately, global SNS like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn are
not popular in Japan so far, although Japanese versions are available.
Moreover, there are typical differences between Japanese domestic SNSs and
global SNSs. For example, usually, you can’t join Japanese domestic SNS
without invitation by those who are already in the network. And most users
don’t show their profile like name properly. So, it is often difficult to find
friends in Japanese domestic SNSs. So, most of Japanese domestic SNSs
mirror the existing human relations. These SNSs are not always used for
developing new relationship with strangers. These differences are a kind of
barrier to communicate with each other between Japan and USA in a
scholarly way.
However, there are some signs of change. I have 2 points. One is the
change of the policy of mixi and the other is the challenge of Facebook to
break into Japanese market officially. At the beginning of this month, mixi
changed their policy. They turned from invitation to free registration. It will
make levels of entry lower. And it is said that Facebook is going to establish
Facebook Japan in these few months. Already Facebook hired the Japanese
manager for establishing domestic company in Japan. It is not clear that
Facebook will succeed in Japan as in other countries, but their start of actual
service will affect the policy of domestic SNS providers and custom among
their users. I guess and I hope, these changes convert Japanese domestic
SNSs from closed community to open community. If this is achieved, SNSs
will become more helpful tool for communicating with both Japan and USA
and exchanging information and opinions.
Some Recommendations from Japan
Finally, I want to recommend 2 new services from Japan.
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5. Mastering the art of connecting in today’s global information society
2010 年 3 月 23 日
【Slide #8】
Social Networking Services go on
Next Stage #2
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First, this is Lang-8. Lang-8 is a kind of SNS for multi-lingual
language learning and language exchange. Lang-8 started in year 2008 and
now has 90K users from more than 190 countries and areas. In lang-8, we
can write diaries, articles, reports, and even papers in nonnative language
and can have the texts corrected by natives. Now, about 70% of users write in
languages other than Japanese. This service will be useful and helpful for
communication between Japanese speakers and English speakers if users
increase.
【Slide #9】
Appendix #2 - Researchmap
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Second, this is the Researchmap which produced byDr. Noriko Arai.
She is a professor of National Institute of Informatics. This is a kind of SNS
for researchers and their supporters. I'm not sure whether this service will
become a de fact standard in Japanese academic field or not. Actually, now
there are just 1.6k people. But, just in this month, Researchmap launched its
English Version. If you are interested in, Please tell me and give me your
namecard, I’ll invite you. These examples are just for your reference.
【Slide #10】
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6. Mastering the art of connecting in today’s global information society
2010 年 3 月 23 日
Thank you!
This slide will be uploaded on “SlideShare” and
URLs which I showed will be listed on my Blog.
Please, search "ARG" using Yahoo/Google.
Makoto Okamoto
President / Producer,
Academic Resource Guide, Inc.
10
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That’s all. The tools I mentioned in my report are far from sufficient
for us. So, I want to discuss what tools and devices are required and what we
can do. Let me hear your opinion later.
Thank you.
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