Facebook and Japan: The Story of Clashing Cultures

Facebook may soon rule the world. But the empire won’t include Japan. “Facebook Wins Relatively Few Friends in Japan” by Hiroko Tabuchi reports less than 2% of Japan’s population uses Facebook. Japan is still the tech advanced and driven society it has been known as. So, Why hasn’t Facebook been adopted by Japan? Two reasons: Japan’s Internet culture clashes perfectly with the Facebook culture and the company has rivals in the country.

“The Internet in Japan has not been so closely connected with real society…Those other community sites can keep offering the joys of staying remote from real life”

                                      -Mr. Kodama, the Facebook manager for Japan

In Japan, users actively participate in online communities. Typically, they don’t use personal photos, real names, or make attempts to connect their real life with their profile. This is completely different from the Facebook culture. Facebook prides itself on being an open real community. Even if a Facebook user didn’t want to upload photos or give personal information, they have to use their real name. While there may be ways to get around the policy, Japanese users have been faced with the real name policy at almost every attempt to not use it. Thus, most are not attracted to Facebook, even after making attempts at it.

Another aspect of privacy making Facebook unappealing is their infamous privacy issue. Japanese users have complete control over the amount of information revealed. The privacy issues that pop up in the U.S. haven’t affected Facebook’s users because U.S. Internet culture is mostly acceptingly open. For Japan’s already private culture, the privacy issues have furthered the gap between Japanese users and Facebook.

When Japanese users go online, they are using Mixi, Gree, or Mobage-town. According to Tabuchi, “each has more than 20 million users” and none require real names or photos. Amongst these, Mixi is the most popular, it is very similar to Facebook’s platform, only difference is anonymity, and has Twitter’s element within it. Gree and Mobage-town are community gaming platforms with users identified through avatars.

In the article, Facebook didn’t reveal a plan for courting Japanese users. Mr. Kodama, who was quoted above, believes Japanese users will eventually warm up to Facebook. He is alluding to a very important fact: the culture has to become less private for Facebook to get users. The question for Facebook: Do Japanese users need them? How are they different from the social platforms in Japan? If the Japanese culture stays private, they have social platforms to fulfill online communal needs. If the culture becomes less private, users can divulge their true indentities on the online communities they already belong to. All in all, Facebook will have to work hard in the Japanese market. With competition, highly guarded privacy, and users who don’t know of Mark Zuckerberg, this market looks to be the toughest challenge for the company.