“The people of Japan who pass each other wordlessly on the way to work each day suddenly realized they had a lot to talk about. They could argue, berate, complain, insult, opine, free-associate, joke around, and revel in their ability to entertain one other as a completely anonymous collective.”
This article is about Hiroyuki Nishimura, the “bad boy of the Japanese internet” — he runs two of the most popular sites EVER in Japanese web history, 2channel (a bulletin board from 1999) and Nico Nico Douga (a video site where users comment on the clips, like YouTube except the comments are actually placed on top of the clip). In isolated, private Japanese culture, these sites were a revolutionary way for users to say whatever they needed to say without repercussions on their public personae. This is a great profile of the “rebel” who created the two sites and who continues to make Japanese businesspeople uncomfortable with his slacker attitude and immense financial success.
