Japanese Blog
A Japan Times editorial published today reveals that according to “a recent survey,” Japanese is the most popular language in the global blogosphere. We’ll get back to why that may not be true in a minute. But first, let’s look at the article’s merits, at least from a business standpoint.
The piece points out that blogs fill an important role in society by giving people a place to vent and express themselves when they might otherwise find it impossible to do so. At the same time, Japan has a high rate of adoption when it comes to high-tech devices and gadgets; people are familiar with the digital world and likely to try out new forms of technology.
Although the editorial mentions the importance of ‘chatting’ and the near impossibility of striking up a conversation with a stranger, blogs satisfy a need far greater than that. Blogs allow people to group themselves by interest and find others with similar interests.
We might even say that they allow one to expand the ’social network,’ should such a concept exist. Or, pushing it even further, they allow one to engage in ’social networking.’ Perhaps the marketing people can turn that into something.
Point is, blogs are popular in Japan. This much is true. Any business plan involving blogs and Japan should be able to communicate the reasons why quite clearly, with a little more research. Couple this with Dentsu’s recent report claiming that online advertising has potential for “growth into a 750 billion yen plus market by 2011? and you have a powerful recipe for building a business online in Japan.