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Best Bloggers in Japan! Wait, seriously?

Global Voices Online: Japan: Alpha Blogger Awards 2008 (Part 1)

Here you have it folks: the best of the Japanese web. Anyone else feel underwhelmed? Seriously, the second best is a site that gives you the most basic common-sense information about pregnancy.

I don’t want to use the word “ugly” for the featured blog formatting, but is there a law or something against breaking preset template in this country?

How many years until there are “professional-grade blogs” with mass readerships that are not horribly-corrupt product-placement schemes, fake celebrity diaries written/vetted by mangers, or re-prints of tech press releases?

Maybe the Japanese are not paranoid of the internet: they are just bored.

W. David MARX
February 25, 2009

9 Responses

  1. MattAlt Says:

    Ironically, the “Mayutan Blog” (listed as “My Thoughts” for some reason in the Global Voice piece) represents exactly what you’re looking for. She is obviously not toeing any kind of corporate line (she’s railing about her mistreatment at the hands of a major publisher), she is doing it under her own name, and the blog actually looks halfway decent.

    http://blog.mayutan.com/archives/51397618.html

    I think what Japan lacks in the breadth department (there doesn’t seem to be anything along the lines of BoingBoing here) they make up for in depth with many niche-oriented sites and blogs.

  2. W. David MARX Says:

    We need a whole essay on why manga is Japan’s most free market, and therefore, best artistic field.

  3. bendall Says:

    I’ve thought this for a while, but after last weekend I’m almost positive ramen is Japan’s best artistic field.

  4. Chris Says:

    @MattAlt:

    Just a note: “My Thoughts” (思うこと) was the name of the particular blog post that won, not the name of the blog itself (the ABA awards were for posts this year not blogs).

    I agree very much about the niche-oriented comment. Actually that exact idea was brought up at last year’s awards.

  5. trvr Says:

    i thought it was cause ALL japanese people only use the internet on their phones. ALL of them. no computers. just phones.
    no, but still. if you have a phone as your primary internet device, and it doesn’t use CSS.. then..

  6. Chris Says:

    Just a note, the second half of this GV article is now up. Seems that there are some really amazing posts in there, my personal favourite being number 10: The Story of how a 19 year old NEET Girl Cried with Joy when I Took Her to Kinokuniya (a major bookstore) in Sapporo.

  7. Adamu Says:

    Am I wrong to see in these winners was the popularity of emotional arguments like the screed about how Google Street View offends a unique Japanese sense of privacy. This reminds me of the general popularity of pathos-heavy schmaltz like keitai novels and movies like “Sekai no naka de ai wo sakebu”

  8. Aceface Says:

    This is one of those moment that I feel the urge to become alpha blogger…..

  9. Roy Berman Says:

    Ace: You could do a blog just posting Japanese translations of your comments on all of our blogs and it would be plenty.