I’ve scoured everywhere but I just can’t find discussion forums (that aren’t social media, big question sites like quora or image boards) and even many sites that would have comment sections here just don’t. This sucks because this is the most I read online.
Meanwhile, most of what I listen to is on youtube. I mostly watch scripted, edited content giving opinions/thoughts, experiences, analysis, information and criticism of media I’m into, mainly gaming but also music, series/films, etc. I can only find a few. All the ones that is like the stuff I’m into is by Japanese people who are speaking English to an English speaking audience. Meanwhile I can find a shitload of let’s players and vloggers. Things I’m not all that into. Especially not when they’re trying really hard to get views rather than just..Make shit, which I find to be common in modern Youtube.
I like opinions. I like discussions. Sometimes when it’s not about games but some broader, maybe philosophical topic, or some social or psychological topic, but I’m more interested in entertainment/art, and more on the geeky side of it. But outside of 2chan, whose format I don’t like, and social media (which I mostly hate so I’ve decided to just use reddit for it), I don’t really have a good way to maintain my Japanese without forcing myself to read some book or watch some anime I don’t even want to read/watch that day and even then it’s probably not the type of Japanese I’m interested in, plus sometimes it’s just harder to get my hands on Japanese content I’m interested in. The last thing I do a lot is just chat with people. I’m not the most social person but making Japanese friends as an autistic person has been super hard I keep making friends with Japanese learners instead even though I am capable of having long conversations in Japanese it’s just that their culture makes it harder for me than it already is.
To top it all off, It feels like most of the internet moved to the same big centralized commercialized spaces and google shows results of companies that payed and stuff the most with almost ad-like content, which I dislike in general, but I’ve succumbed to using reddit and wordpress out of convenience like many others. I feel like on the English Internet I can still get around this with some effort and find niche places, but on the Japanese internet this seems difficult. On top of that, certain sites seem to make it hard for foreigners to sign up.
Like, what’s up with this? People will say things like ”you can’t generalize” but I literally haven’t been able to find 1 forum/bulletin board type thing that wasn’t a 2chan style image board and a few of its offspring. It’d be like if all forums and bulletin boards I could find were just like, a handful of reddit clones. I feel like this culture just does not care about sharing detailed opinions unless you’re like, super close. I find a lot of the more practical, objective things to be less interesting. I was able to find some neat blogposts and articles though, which I read sometimes too but I just feel like it’s not enough for me to naturally be exposed to a lot of Japanese like I am naturally exposed to tons of English everyday (more so than my native language).
8 comments
As far as media-centric essays, it’s more or less because (and I say this with only the smallest incling about the subject ) Japan’s copyright laws are fucking FUCKED. People have gone to prison for discussing films on video with scenes playing to illustrate a point. Seems like an example of fair use, anywhere but Japan. Hell, Toei Animation gave a DBZ YouTuber based outside of Japan a hard time, basically trying to apply Japanese law to his videos. Since he showed a Japanese intellectual property, it didn’t particularly matter that his content might have been a critique or a transformative work. I also just checked using a VPN and most of DBZA is actually blocked in Japan, even videos in which they opted for CGI animations rather than official footage. Generally, if a Japanese person were to talk about media they like, it would be just them as a talking head in front of the camera.
On the other hand, I’ve been looking for some video discussions on the Yakuza game series recently, and I still get a healthy number of Japanese results using game footage. I’m guessing it’s operating under the same rules that make gameplay captures a remotely acceptable practice on the Japanese side of the internet.
A big obstacle to forums taking over is the fact that Japan is a mobile phone culture.
[Today](https://www.soumu.go.jp/johotsusintokei/whitepaper/ja/r02/html/nd252110.html), relatively few households in Japan (69%) have a computer at home, while almost everyone (82% of people) have a smartphone. [A 2021 survey](https://k-tai.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/1386100.html) found that 52% of people access the internet *exclusively* through their smartphone. Even before smartphones, in 1999 Japan was the first place you could access the internet through a browser on your phone. This has helped made-for-mobile platforms like Twitter dominate.
My Japanese wife talks about large forum discussions on Yahoo News..
Very interesting because you can talk about conspiracies on there without being censored it seems..
I’m not exactly sure to understand what you’re looking for, but I don’t have troubles finding videos on youtube giving opinions or explanations about games, movies etc.
When I finished elden ring recently I watched [https://youtu.be/78hlR7j-twc](https://youtu.be/78hlR7j-twc) , would that correspond ?
What about popular youtubers like hiroyuku or daigo ? It’s more about japanese society and recent happenings but they’re quite diverse in the subjects they treat.
And websites like [https://anond.hatelabo.jp/archive](https://anond.hatelabo.jp/archive) ? The comments are usually not high quality, but they also often become so developped they become a new popular entry, which will keep the debate going.
I find ことラボ to be pretty interesting with short video essays (8-12 minutes).
As mentioned by another commenter ひろゆき uploads videos discussing modern Japanese society and even has published several books.
I haven’t done so myself but I figure that if you go deeper down the YouTube recommendations from these two you’d find what you’re searching for.
You could like
youtube.com/c/toolanimekansou
For opinions and discussions, here are some of the ff. individuals:
* Nishimura Hiroyuki (hiroyuki)
* Narita Yusuke
* Hige-oyaji
* Matsumaru Daigo (Mentalist DaiGo)
* Nakata Atsuhiko (Nakata University)
I’m going to be honest with you. Your comments surprised me because 70% of what I have online is in Japanese. I read a lot in japanese and I have never encountered the issue you are talking to. I think you just don’t know where to look.
You want to read things like reddit or ONTD ? Go to Girls Channel. I have a disinterest for these types of plateform so I don’t remember their names because I saw them years ago. but they exist. You just have to look for them.
Youtube is – full- nowadays of videos that are not just blogs. You want to listen to people talk about music and the likes. There are tons of videos where dancers or people who likes music react to popular music in Japan from Jpop to Kpop.
Second, you don’t like social media 🤷🏽♀️ well that’s a you problem that’s definitely going to impact your experience. Japanese twitter is very active on large topics including political ie : LGBTQ+ rights. Nowadays with the possibility of spaces, it’s even more used. People talk in private by DM a lot both on IG and twitter. Thzt’s how it is
People talk also with Line a lot. You need to first get to know someone online about a topic (on twitter for one), and then they will add you to a Line GC be it you alone with that person, or a group of people.
Yes, they feel way more comfortable talking and debating with people they know (even very remotely) than open in the public even under the guise of anonymity. But there are ways around this as stated above. They may only know you as B (false name) who likes Z and E but that’s enough.
Imo you are being a bit condescending. It’s not because something exist in English (so born in specific countries and usually the US) that it has to exist in other countries. Instead of asking them to bow to your preferences and complain that you can’t find what you like and how it’s so much better in english sounding environment (do you see how that also sounds ?) you should accept to instead conform to what japanese people are doing. Or accept that well since there is no way and you don’t want to do all that, then to simply continue with the books.
You cannot complain that you want to read and watch things but also put a limit to how and what. That’s just not going to work for a heck tons of countries. Possibly even most.
If you really want to read online and watch tv and talk, there are ways. It’s easier nowadays than it was few years ago let alone way before. You can even found people streaming variety shows and the likes. But you will need to look for them or if you don’t find them accept to either try what the other country is doing, or to keep your previous ways.