The relative youth of the Internet culture in Japan.

I have a blog! This is the rambling discussion on the nature of information culture in Japan, and its evolution in comparison to the United States originated elsewhere. It just wasn't relevant enough to keep, but too much to just toss into the trash.

The relationship of internet media and society is being developed even now, in both the United States and Japan. I make particular note of Japan, as the tools, content, and demands placed upon the data communciations is quite different than in the United States. Especially interesting is the differing legal battles that take place regarding the medium, the front lines of defining society's relationship with its information. Privacy, free speech, and the like. These are elements of the internet which are relatively solidified in the United States. There is case history and legal precedents being set regarding the use of the internet. Spamming, wire fraud, gambling, internet bullying, and so forth. In this aspect, the social landscape of the internet in the United States is still better defined, and less volatile than in Japan. This is in comparison to Japan, where certain types of cracking, or malicious code development is not illegal. There are no legal statutes that cover these new crimes. Its relationship is thus still quite young, and yet underexplored. Is it the less litigious nature of Japan? Perhaps.

But one thing is clear, the internet and the technology in Japan is only reaching the youth now. As they explore and utilise the technology in their own methods to connect, they redefine the face and nature of the internet. The leading technology developers pull in one direction, the masses push another. Conflict is there. More pronounced in some ways than in the United States.

Another aspect to note is the differing method of innovation in Japan. In japan, the internet as we know it (a computer connected to the WWW through a browser) is less prominent in comparison to the ubiquity of mobile phone access. Mobile phone access is rather limited, and most of the use is through apps and sites through the phone browser, accessed through the phone's portal links. What difference does this make? The difference is the ability for US developers to really be free in developing new tools. getting a URL is cheap, and finding an audience (while not easy) is not difficult. The Japanese developers have to work much much harder to find their audience. Getting a sponsored link on a portal site is extremely important. This means that the creativity is more constrained, but far more explosive in the enclosed boundaries. Think haiku. In the severe restrictions and stiff rules blooms a spectacular creativity. It is as much as what one can do within a boxed garden, as it is about the ability to break out of a box. In a way, the Americans build a new mousetrap. The Japanese make the current mousetrap work better, and more elegantly than before.