Inside Japan’s Wiki Obsession

Today we’re digging deeper into the search engine dominance of wikis in Japan.  Unfortunately, the best explanations I’ve uncovered thus far are specific to Wikipedia rather than wiki technology in general. I hope we can agree that Wikipedia is the cultural vanguard that paves the way for all future wiki projects.  With that in mind, here are some powerful reasons Wikipedia is such a force in Japan.

Possible reasons the Japanese so love wikis, as discovered yesterday:

• Almost all Japanese Wikipedia users trust it
• Six Japanese government officials spend their work days updating wiki entries on cartoon robots
• Wired Japan and Slashdot Japan gave the Japanese Wikipedia early press
• One in five Japanese have searched for advertisement keywords: Pop culture rules wikipedia!
• 3G penetration is nearly 100% in Japan: More wikipedia editing on the train!

I’m still hoping to hear back from two ESL teachers who’ve worked in Japan. Hopefully they can provide deeper insights.

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