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Inside The Japanese Blogosphere

Categories: East Asia, Japan, Citizen Media, Ideas

Ra, a third-generation Korean resident in Japan, who “has a Japanese name, has the same color of skin, the same way of speaking, and watches the same television” as the Japanese, and even so, is still considered a “foreigner in his home country”, is looking for help translating his popular blog Korean The Third [1](日本語) from Japanese into English and other languages.

Ra hopes his blog, which offers plenty of insight into relations between Japan and the Korean Peninsula, will help promote rational discussion regarding recent anti-Japanese protests in East Asia.

A Beginner's Guide to Convenience Store Hassles [2](日本語) is a bridge blog that documents the problems konbini employees and franchise operaters in Japan encounter when dealing with the large companies, such as 7-11, that dominate the crowded convenience store sector in that country. Typical issues include sub-par logistics, market over-development, and dodgy pricing schemes, with the end result that it's very difficult to make a living operating a convenience store franchise in Japan.

Takafumi Horie, 30-something CEO of Livedoor [3], one Japan's most influential ISP's, offers career [4] advice in a Q and A format to any and all on one of his weblogs. It's significant because Horie stresses that, instead of joining a company and doggedly working one's way up the corporate ladder the traditional way, individuality, creativity, and vision (and some good old-fashioned Japanese hard work) are all it takes to become a success in post-bubble Japan.

Cyber Agent [5] president Susumu Fujita also has a blog, Diary of a Shibuya Company President [6]. Fujita, then 26, started Cyber Agent in 1998 as an internet ad agency, and the company successfully weathered the tech meltdown. Cyber Agent now offers Ameblog [7], a popular blogging tool .

While Fujita's blogging style is somewhat staid, Cyber Agent, like Livedoor, is another Japanese company that cultivates the individual intiative and business acumen of its employees, and seems to be popular with career-oriented young women in Japan.

Blogs were discovered at Ninki Blog Ranking [8].