What is Blogging

"Blogging will fundamentally change the (way) people interact with media and politics and provide us with an opportunity to overhaul our outdated democracies

Business opportunities
Blogs have been rapidly growing in popularity in Japan, catching on especially in the past year at a pace that's believed to lag only the United States. At least a dozen companies in Japan provide blogging services. Internet service provider Nifty, which licenses Six Apart's software, has drawn about 25,000 bloggers.

Most of the blog services are free so far. But once blogging gains acceptance as a self-publishing medium, business opportunities such as advertising and premium photo-sharing services should emerge.

Ito has yet to launch a specific moneymaking service for bloggers, but he has created a Neoteny blogging team to feed the fad.

Blogs here look similar to those in the United States. People comment on the news and music, pass around jokes, rate restaurants.

In a society that emphasizes conformity and harmony, blogging makes it easier for people to express unpopular opinions and get tangled in emotional debates.

"The thing neat about weblogs is you find each other," Ito said. "It gives you a feeling of empowerment. For grass-roots movements and things like that, it will be great."

Junjiro Hara, who has known Ito for decades, is sold on blogging and prefers it as an outlet for his views than his real job at major newspaper Asahi Shimbun.

"Japan can't change for the better until it becomes a place where everyone starts blogging," Hara said.

Natural fit
For Ito, promoting blogging came naturally in a life already devoted to bridging Japanese and American cultures.

Ito was born in Japan but spent parts of his childhood in Canada and the United States because his father worked abroad. While in Japan, Ito attended international schools. He became fluent in English and Japanese while always feeling slightly outside mainstream Japanese society.

Ito joined friends from international schools in creating Japan's first Web pages.

"People thought we were crazy. But we had great confidence because we saw that it was going to be giant one day," said Cyrus Shaoul, one of Ito's international-school buddies. "The point wasn't to make a lot of money. The point was to change the world."

Ito believes blogging will one day prove as influential as the printing press.

"Blogging will fundamentally change the (way) people interact with media and politics and provide us with an opportunity to overhaul our outdated democracies," he said.