I’ve written a series of articles about the time I spent in Japan. I hope you enjoy both these and my further contributions to JAPUNDIT.

• How I Got there
• Culture Shock
• Exploration as Recreation
• A Cross-Country Drive
• Combini and Vending Machines
• Bicycling and Injury
• Shopping Blind
• The Elusive Asian Girlfriend
• Nonverbal Communication
• So You Want to be an Expatriate
• All Good Things

Magibon

Magibon is an internet personality on the video-sharing website YouTube.

As of August 8, 2008, Magibon leads YouTube Japan’s All time top list. Magibon is also a member of the Youtube Partner Program.

Magibon has been invited and flown to Japan by a Japanese Internet TV Station GYAO for a media appearance. She has been interviewed twice by the Japanese Weekly Playboy magazine.

Magigon on YouTube

Like most countries, the keitai (mobile phone) has become a huge part of life in Japan, and for the younger generation, cell phones seem to be supplanting the personal computer as the primary Internet device of choice.

The newest trend is young people using their phones to access sites called purofu ( “prof,” from the English word profile, which looks very similar to “blog” when rendered in katakana), centralized services that allow people to create profiles for themselves showing their pictures, specifying their age and location, and listing their favorite music, movies or food.

These purofu services are sort of like guestbooks optimized to display on cell phones, where people can search for keywords then leave comments or links and have random, meandering discussions, creating a way for lonely Japanese young people to make friends.

No one knows exactly how many users of these services there are in Japan, but conservative estimates start at 1 million or more.

The new Internet services aren’t without problems, however, some of which came to light last week when a 17-year-old student attacked a 14-year-old in Chiba Prefecture with a metal baseball bat for writing insults on his profile page.

Check out this video in which Oiwan Lam talks about how China pays people to go onto blogs and into chatrooms to tout the party line.

Via Danwei

More on this story here.

By some estimates, these commentary teams now comprise as many as 280,000 members nationwide, and they show just how serious China’s leaders are about the political challenges posed by the Web. More importantly, they offer tangible clues about China’s next generation of information controls—what President Hu Jintao last month called “a new pattern of public-opinion guidance.”

Well, it looks like the science is in on you guys. Researchers in the U.S. have concluded that obsessive internet use is a public health problem, which is so serious it should be officially recognized as a clinical disorder

Sufferers spend unhealthy amounts of time playing online games, viewing pornography or emailing.

They suffer four symptoms: They forget to eat and sleep; they need more advanced technology or more hours online as they develop ‘resistance’ to the pleasure given by their current system; if they are deprived of their computer, they experience genuine withdrawal symptoms; And in common with other addictions, the victims also begin to have more arguments, to suffer fatigue, to get lower marks in tests and to feel isolated from society.

Early research into the subject found highly educated, socially awkward men were the most likely sufferers but more recent work suggests it is now more of a problem for middle-aged women who are spending hours at home on their computers.

According to psychiatrist Dr Jerald Block, “The relationship is with the computer. It becomes a significant other to them. They exhaust emotions that they could experience in the real world on the computer through any number of mechanisms: emailing, gaming, porn.” He added: “It’s much more acceptable for kids to talk about game use, whereas adults keep it a secret. Rather than having sex, or arguing with their wife or husband, or feeding their children, these adults are playing games.”