2 channel accessed from work by one in five Japanese
If you want to find a reason to dislike Japan, visiting 2 channel is probably the best place to start. This recent survey from JR Tokai Express Research Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into the 2 channel bulletin board system found an awful lot of people use the place.
Demographics
On the 10th of July 2008 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group employed in either the private or public sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 74.9% of the sample were male, 7.3% in their twenties, 40.2% in their thirties, 38.1% in their forties, and 14.5% in their fifties.
The popular image of 2 channel amongst the portion of the gaijin internet users that I am familiar with is of it as a place of unfettered right-wing strongly-nationalistic hate-mongerers. A standing joke, based very much on fact, is that whenever a Japanese person commits a headline-worthy crime, the 2 channelers will dig up a Korean ancestor for them so as to deny the wrong-doer is one of “us”.
Having said that, I don’t really know what percentage of 2 channel (by volume or by frequency of access) is of that reprehensible kind. Do any of my readers have a feel for this?
Oh, and 2 channel is blocked at work by our firewall proxy, I think. I can’t check as they’ve just recently started asking people about why they accessed blocked sites, and I don’t fancy trying to explain that away!
Research results
Of the original sample, 263 people, or 79.5% had viewed the 2 channel site. They were asked the following questions.
Q1: How did you first come to visit 2 channel? (Sample size=263)
Found it through search results 40.3% Friends introduced me to it 22.8% Was introduced on another site 9.1% Was introduced in a magazine, television 10.3% Don’t know, can’t remember 15.2% Other 2.3% Q2: Where do/did you access 2 channel? (Sample size=263, multiple answer)
Votes Percentage From home 245 93.2% From work 53 20.2% From mobile phone when outside 24 9.1% From net cafe, other external facility 19 7.2% From notebook computer when outside 5 1.9% Other 3 1.1% Q3: Have you written messages on 2 channel? (Sample size=263)
Just read 88.2% Sometime write 10.3% Frequently write 0.4% Other 1.1% The text in the report suggested that the read-only percentage was very high, but I have seen the figure quoted for other boards that a posting readership percentage of 10% is good.
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doinkies said,
August 6, 2008 @ 02:43
2ch is a huge place that has boards for every topic. Not everyone who posts there posts hatespeech, and it’s not in every board there.
nanashi said,
August 7, 2008 @ 06:59
Oh man. You live in Japan and haven’t even bothered to take the time to clue yourself on what 2ch really is all about? SAD. It never fails to surprise me just how so many gaijins living in Japan are totally clueless about Japan (but think they know what they are talking about) and only perpetuate certain things because of what some other gaijin said. Clue, use your own brain for change. I think all these statistics of what OTHER’s think isn’t doing you any good.
Calling it a bulletin board collectively is the worst thing you can do because 2ch is more like a mashup of smaller boards, each with their own unique cultures and personality. To collectively even refer to 2ch as a place full of nationalistic rightwingers reveals how out of touch you are. And as doinkies said, not everything there is hatespeech. There is actually a very small number of boards where all the nationalistic xenophobes congregate.
Not everything there is meant to be taken serious either. It is like reading tea leaves where you have to be able to read between the lines to figure out if someone is joking, trolling, or actually providing real information. It’s no wonder so many 2channelers are able to make fun of foreign readers without the foreigner realizing they are being laughed at since they don’t really quite get what they are looking at and take everything at face value.
What Japan Thinks used to be one site I used to have respect for but as time has passed, you’ve proven on a matter of subjects that you really don’t know what you are talking about.