Internet In and Out of Japan Lauren Kocher

Internet In and Out of Japan Lauren Kocher, Charlotte Soesanto, Miho Goto

Top 15 Countries -Internet users for 2005, in millions and percent of total users. 1. US 197. 8 (18. 3%) 9. France 28. 8 (2. 7%) 2. China 119 (11. 1%) 10. Brazil 25. 9 (2. 4%) 3. Japan 86. 3 (8. 0%) 11. Russia 23. 7 (2. 2%) 4. India 50. 6 (4. 7%) 12. Canada 21. 9 (2. 0%) 5. Germany 46. 3 (4. 3%) 13. Indonesia 18. 0 (1. 7%) 6. UK 35. 8 (3. 3%) 14. Spain 15. 8 (1. 5%) 7. South Korea 33. 9 (3. 1%) 15. Taiwan 9. 5 (1. 43%) 8. Italy 28. 8 (2. 7%) Source: e. Marketer, April 12, 2006

PC and Cell Phone Per 100 Inhabitants in Japan Unmediating Community, Akiyoshi 2004

Mobile Phone and Internet Use in Different Groups of Countries Beyond Mobile, Lindgren, Jedbratt, & Svenson, 2002

Internet on Keitai Denwa (Cell Phone) Keitai Culture –So many Japanese use high tech cell phones with internet capabilities • • • Books GPS navigation TV and Radio Crime Prevention Buzzer Pedometer Alarm Clock Suica - train tickets Osaifu Keitai - cell phone wallet Cmode -Vending machines RPGs such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest

Web-enabled Mobile Phone Per 100 Inhabitants (2003) 1. Japan 34. 08 2. Iceland 14. 28 3. Finland 14. 07 4. Austria 13. 43 5. Luxembourg 13. 34. . . 25. South Korea 9. 26 30. USA 2. 33 Mito Akiyoshi called Unmediating Community: The Non-Diffusion of the Internet in Japan, 1985 -2002

Abundance of imode Keitai In 2003: 75. 5 Million Cell phones in Japan Out of those phones, 62. 5 milllion had imode - internet capabilities That’s 82. 6% of keitai in Japan had internet!

Why Internet on Keitai? • Talking on the cell phone in public places is found as rude in Japan. • Phone minutes are very expensive, texts and emails are inexpensive • Therefore Texting and Emailing became very popular in Japan.

ギャル文字 Gyaru-Moji • Due to privacy issues, young women started using a special code for messaging on their keitai. • They use a language similar to l 33 t. They use various symbols, numbers, kanji characters to imitate the actual letters.

Activism Via Internet • Masu Komi vs. Mini Komi – Mini Komi is ideal for specialized political groups, especially feminist groups have been known to use these channels of communication, outside the mainstream communications industry. • These groups in the past had passed out handwritten newsletters in hopes of getting their word out. • Thanks to the internet, they can reach out to whomever they want whenever they want in great ease. • Online Petitions- very easy to get signatures using internet

Internet/manga cafes • Places to use internet • Cubical with PC, pay per hour • Read manga • Sleep/shower • Eat & drink

• In a single month the number of videos on the site grew 20% to 6. 1 million • You. Tube has some 45 terabytes of videos • Video views reached 1. 73 billion • 70% of You. Tube's registered users are American, roughly 50% are under 20 http: //www. micropersuasion. com/2006/08/youtube_by_the_. html

Internet Vehicles for Japanese Pop Culture • You. Tube • Pop culture Blogs • J-list, and other English language Japanese product sites.

2 Channel • Started in 1999 by Hiroyuki Nishimura • Annonymous Forum for all interests • 2. 5 million posts a day • http: //www. micropersuasion. com/2006/08/youtube_by_the_. html

Statistics 1, 059 people from their monitor group. 51. 9% were male, 26. 9% in their twenties, 25. 1% in their thirties, 24. 6% in their forties, and 23. 4% in their fifties.

Anonymity and Community • Lack of physical information allows people to befriend others easily based only on interest • A “careful construction of anonymity” • Lacking social position etc. • However, once known…. • also facilitates “Matsuri” behavior • Nori’s hatemail/2 chan targetting • Corporations forced to apologize for being rude to someone who needed help with VCR

Japanese Pornography on the Internet “Hentai”

§ Google searching (in English) “hentai” gives 32, 400, 000 results, including a Romanian fan site § The first English language site from the search receives 300 million visits per day § Why “hentai”? (relates to other readings on “why manga? ”) § Historical? Shunga prints? (direct connection: Hokusai print. ) § Escaping censorship? § “Hentai” is English

Scholarship on Hentai From “Way Better Than Real: Manga Sex to Tentacle Hentai” by Joel Powell Dahlquist and Lee Garth Vigilant • ambivalence among dedicated fans and scholars of Japan in how to address flooding of American pop culture with Japanese materials • “ambiguously gendered characters” as “disturbing” • the cognitive jump necessary for a translation of corporeal experience to representation in hentai • Genshiken - Madarame • Moral evaluation of “hard-core” • Contrast with ladies’ comics article • Hentai as “postmodern pornography” in its ambiguity Net. se. XXX: Readings on Sex, Pornography, and the Internet. Waskul, D. Dennis, ed. New York, Peter Lang Publishing, 2004.

“Hentai” as Japan • How many Americans know about “pantyvending machines” or “tentacle porn!”? • How many Americans (especially non-Asian. Americans) know Japan once colonized Korea and Taiwan? • Things like hentai are found only through a medium like the internet. • my opinion: The new Japanese Version is someone who lectures on “panty-vending machines”

That’s all! Do you have any Questions for us?