Online Exhibitionism is an American Phenomena
The cultural of personal transparency that Americans are beginning to embrace with their blogs, MySpace and Twitter feeds documenting everything they do in their lives is a unique social phenomena. Call it "Online Exhibitionism". The Japanese prize their privacy, and it's quite likely the rest of the world still adheres to this social philosophy.
Techcrunch's Serkan Toto explains why the personal exposition features of MySpace and Facebook are failing in Japan:
A perfect example of a cultural misconception: Mark ZuckerbergMixi's users hide behind pseudonyms (less than 5% use their real names), but their social networks understand who they are in real society. Toto explains Mixi's features in an earlier article. By the way, it's difficult for non-Japanese to join Mixi because you need an invitation from a Japanese user and a Japanese cell phone address to register.recently said in Tokyo one of Facebook’s unique selling points is the usage of real names and photos in profiles. This may be true but it’s exactly what Japanese web users usually try to avoid. And they already have a high-trust, invitation-based social network anyway: Mixi.
Google Street Views just went live in Japan this week, and you need to read Japanese (and Mixi) to understand the consternation revolving around the idea of simply exposing a view of your house to the general public. Unlike Americans, the Japanese tend not to invite business relationships to their home and prefer that business social activities take place in bars and restaurants. Image conscious Japanese don't like the intrusive idea that their colleagues can check them out. You can imagine the cringing reception a Zillow might have.
Update: Tony at Vidlisting.com refers a translated article that explains this Japanese viewpoint on the intrusive nature of Google Street Views.
Being expat Japanese, I can understand, but I don't relate. Footprint is unique feature I dislike. They are private, yet very invasive. They don't debate, they chat. Mixi fit in for reason.
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Everything you say fits into how Japanese tend to relate... nonconfrontational, even busybodyish. I think a lot of expat Japanese here in the US feel some mild relief to be outside its more hidden, rule-based society.
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Global Voices posted a translation of an open letter to google about this topic.
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/08/08/japan-letter-to-google-about-street-view/
Tony
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