Ten Notable Tweets from Japanese Based Tweeters
Twitter as a social medium, is conversation or line of thoughts in 140 characters or less. It has taken the world by storm, since its inception in 2006. In this past year, it has made its availability to other countries, creating a global community. Twitter has become a valuable tool in communication for Japan crisis awareness to other parts of the world. When nearly all lines of normal communication became compromised, Twitter was useful with just a cell phone or a computer, and an internet connection. There currently is a #quakebook that has began, because of Twitter.
Japan to the world may appear to be a homogenous society, but its society also has a number of English speaking expats who range from professionals of being entrepreneurs, journalists, writers or translators. One thing is certain; they provide a steady stream of conversation and news for people to follow. Twitter is definitely not a traditional blog entry. Tweets are very individualized and personalized. It is a very fluid medium that may not be for everyone. However, people who follow others are for conversation or just in the know, since Twitter links other media oriented links.
For Japan’s notoriety as being a mecca for otaku fan culture, and to have tweeters, tweet in English. This forms a bridge that brings awareness of niche fan culture for other fans around the world. People who are interested about Japan from an anime/fan culture definitely should know about @dannychoo and @jlist since they blog and tweet about Japan and fan cultures. The image above is their recent collaboration to raise funds for Japan relief. However, this entry is an additional list of suggestions, and while it is not a comprehensive list. It is still a good list to get you going on following something that can eventually look like the mosaic below.
@Matt_Alt (AltJapan) He is currently tweeting about current events, but he still is a voice from Tokyo on interesting otaku fan culture bits.
@giantrobo (Otaku2) An Otaku/Anime Fan living at Akihabara, he tweets about life, news, and how to navigate around this electric town, intermixed with cultures of moe, maids and anime productivity.
@TokyoOtakuMode This tweeter shares an assortment of Japanese anime fan culture news.
@BiggestinJapan As a freelance journalist, he tweets about the video games industry, and other niche subtopics, like Street Fighter or X-Man. He writes for Gamezone.com and is also heard on the Out Cast podcast.
@markmacd Executive director of 8-4. Talks extensively about Japanese gaming industry. Similar to @matt_alt in being listed by CNN as tweeters to follow for inspiration.
@NTT_Solmare Company that talks about distributing manga and Japanese video game titles on mobile platforms!
@WilliamFlanagan As a freelance translator living in Japan, he has is an interesting tweeter to follow. Talks about Japan, and manga issues.
@TokyoFashion (TokyoFashion.com) Tweets about unique and possible fashion trends from Harujuku, Shinjuku, Shibuya and other areas.
@dansnosekai (Thumbnail of Life) Amazing Japanese photographs, this tweeter talks and re-tweets a lot of Japanese current event news.
…Now if you happen to like what this suggested list of Tweeters talks about, then you can consider looking toward the people these people follow, and end up following others o make your own Twitter time line more interesting. Happy Tweeting.
Linda Yau is a fan of Japanese culture, and various anime/manga titles. She is a freelance writer and editor under her own name or animemiz. Her main blog is here and she can be contacted by Twitter.