Anywhere else Hiroyuki Nishimura might expect to be treated as a role model for aspiring young entrepreneurs. Still only in his late 20s, he has built a Web site used by almost 8 million people a month. His Channel 2 ("ni chaneru") bulletin board is thought to be the largest in the world. It attracts more users than any of Japan's newspaper Web sites. Yet, instead of lauding his success, the media has largely concentrated on the less savory aspects of his massive Net community. Hand-wringing reports about "out of control" anonymous bulletin boards like Channel 2, illegal file-sharing and the dangerous influence of the Internet on young people may be a sign that the Internet's salad days of youthful freedom are coming to an end. The Japanese Internet has a record number of users and its role in the economy is more important than ever. But recently the Internet has been getting a distinctly bad press recently. Some believe that traditional gatekeepers of information see the Internet as a threat, so tighter controls are on the way. The Internet hit the headlines with the May 10 arrest of Isamu Kaneko, a research associate at the prestigious University of Tokyo and creator of "Winny," a popular peer-to-peer file-sharing application. After 20 days in detention, Kaneko was charged with the criminal offense of assisting copyright violations. His supporters claim that the creation of file-sharing software is legal in Japan and that Kaneko had no intention that his software should be used illegally. They allege that the arrest was arbitrary and overly strict. "Up till recently the Internet was used freely and without charge," says Toshimitsu Dan, one of a group of 14 lawyers set to defend Kaneko. "It's a space for business now." The case may be a sign that large corporations want to get more control over the Internet, including stricter copyright controls, he argues. Use of file-sharing software in Japan is already widespread. According to the Computer Software Copyright Association, file-sharing software was used by 9.5 million Japanese in 2003. Half of those people were using Kaneko's Winny software. The Japan Times reported that even the police were using the software. (Earlier this year the police were embarrassed to find confidential files leaked onto the Internet after their computers were hit by a virus that only targets machines using Winny.) But despite the large number of users, the cards may be stacked in favor of the authorities. Dan worries that the debate over copyright in Japan is too one-sided. "In the U.S. there are people supporting Internet regulation and people opposing it, so there is balance," he says. "Unfortunately, we don't have that in Japan." Dan says that many program developers in Japan were shocked by Kaneko's sudden arrest. Without an organization like the Electronic Frontier Foundation to represent programmers, the battle could be a very unequal one. He fears that eventually stricter rules in Japan may drive smaller software creators abroad. Channel 2, arguably Japan's most famous Web site, gets no shortage of coverage in the media. (See Japan Media Review Q&A with Nishimura.) Recently The Asahi Shimbun's popular weekly AERA magazine featured a three-page report on Hiroyuki Nishimura and the Channel 2 bulletin board. The article focused on more than 20 defamation suits that Nishimura faces for his Web site and scathingly referred to Nishimura's "dodges for not paying" over $135,000 (15 million yen) in compensation. "Anonymity" is something of a catchword in news reports on the Internet -- coverage often concentrates on the dangers of Internet users being able to say anything without being identified. Providers are coming under pressure from the authorities to remove postings that damage the reputation of individuals, companies or companies' products. The same edition of AERA that covered Channel 2 carried a report on Weblogs that was as positive as the report on Nishimura's site was negative. Headlined "The Era of Blogs Has Come," AERA wrote approvingly: "You can see poster's 'face,' therefore terrible slanders and slurs won't spread." The magazine gave a laudable example of blogs in action in Japan: A company president who had instructed all of his employees to write personal blogs. The CEO finds the blogs a useful tool for monitoring his employees' interests and personalities, reports AERA.
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"In the real world ... sometimes (people) are too frightened to speak. But the relative anonymity of the Internet has made it easy for them to spread information." -- Toru Maegawa |
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The most concern has been about a number of cases in recent months of bulletin board users posting information about the identity of children arrested for high profile murders. Earlier this year, over the course of one week the Justice Ministry made over 1,100 requests to Web site managers to remove information about the identity of a junior high school boy arrested for the murder of an infant in Nagasaki. In one case, a photograph of several children was posted with the caption "the killer is among these."But despite problems that have come from anonymous posting, the very anonymity of Channel 2 may be the root of its success. It seems that Channel 2 has become so popular precisely because it's a place where people can say what they want without fear of censorship or being identified. "In the real world ... sometimes (people) are too frightened to speak," says Toru Maegawa, an Internet analyst at the Fujitsu Research Institute. "But the relative anonymity of the Internet has made it easy for them to spread information." Media keep eye on bulletin board Channel 2 has become an anarchic and free alternative to Japan's mainstream press and uncompromised by the main media's networks of press clubs, political and corporate allegiances, and consensus-minded stances. Channel 2 can't rival the mainstream media for authority or accuracy, but it is obvious why the Japanese media sense a threat. It seems that a somewhat ambivalent relationship has developed between the Web site and the traditional media. The media criticize Channel 2 for spreading wrong or malicious information, but still keep a close eye on the bulletin board for breaking stories. Anonymous unverifiable posts are anathema to Japanese journalists bred on the importance of personal contacts and solid fact, but few can afford to ignore the flood of firsthand information. But can the Internet offer a space for public discussion to compete with the main media? Not yet, say some observers. Even commentators who value the bulletin boards' role as an information source -- especially as an alternative to a paternalistic establishment media -- are concerned about an apparent flood of confession and accusation. There is no shortage of argument, but reasoned discussion is more rare. "An important issue is whether the users of Channel 2 have the critical media literacy to separate reliable information from unreliable information," says Fujitsu's Maegawa. "Channel 2 doesn't yet have the power to directly affect public opinion itself. The reason 2 Channel is talked about is because it is reported on weekly magazines, on the TV, in the newspapers." Koichi Kobayashi, a professor of media communications at Tokyo's Toyo University, says that the Japanese Internet plays a meager role as a space for public discussion. He compares Japan's 'JanJan' news Web site unfavorably with South Korea's popular OhmyNews site (see Japan Media Review Sept. 17, 2003 report). Instead, the Japanese Internet is mostly "a space for expressing personal interests, personal feelings and confessions," he says. Kobayashi compares reading the content of bulletin boards to reading a novel written in the first person. Regardless of the tone of their coverage, the main media companies in Japan have long had a notably standoffish attitude towards the Internet. "Most of the Japanese media haven't seen the Internet as a chance to expand their business," says Maegawa. He suggests that few organizations have taken advantage of the Internet. "It seems to me that they see the Internet as competition instead." The Web sites of most print and broadcast organizations are relatively unsophisticated. Some of the major newspapers do little more than publish an online copy of the day's newspaper, without even an archive of old articles. The country's politicians have been equally chary of the Internet, even when it might help them get elected. "Many politicians are not interested in using the Internet as a campaign tool, a reflection of the large cultural gap that exists between the generations," comments a Japan Times report. At present, campaign funding regulations stop politicians from even updating their Web sites during an election campaign. But despite the media and authorities' lack of enthusiasm for the digital world, the Internet is being used by more people of a wider range of ages than ever. It's now far too big and popular for even the most Luddite politicians and media executives to ignore. A government survey found there were 77 million people using the Internet in Japan in 2003. The highest numbers of new users are people in their 40s and 50s. Perhaps it's no surprise that conservative voices are trying to bring the Internet into line. Japan's population is graying, the median age getting older and older. Young Internet pioneers and users will soon be outnumbered online by their not necessarily computer-illiterate elders. The Internet may have to change, become more regulated and more conservative. The cyber world is still a chaotic and unconstrained place compared to the "real" Japanese world -- but if recent press coverage is anything to go by, perhaps not for much longer.
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