The following paper was recently presented by Kumiko Aoki at the Pacific Telecommincations Council 1994 Conference.

VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES IN JAPAN

Kumiko Aokikaoki@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii EduUniversity of Hawaii at ManoaHonolulu, USA

1. Abstract

In recent years, virtual communities have proliferated thanks to theconverging technologies of telecommunications and computing. In theUnited States, numerous virtual communities exist in the form of bulletinboards, newsgroups, computer conferencing, etc. and have been expandingits scope beyond the national boundaries. But, those virtual communitiesoriginating in the United States carry heavy American-biased culture whichmembers often take for granted because of the long history of dominationin developing computer networks by American organizations. As examplesof alternative virtual cultures, this paper presents major virtualcommunities in Japan which originated in Japan and mainly sustained bypeople in Japan.

2. Introduction and Background

The convergence of telecommunication and computer technologies has enablednetworking of people regardless of their geographical and temporaldifferences. The scope of such computer networks has been expandingexponentially since the first extensive comp uter network, ARPANET, wascreated in 1968 by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S.Department of Defense (now DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research ProjectsAgency). Now its successor, Internet, comprises 1.7 million computers inmore than 1 25 countries (Stix, 1993); most of them at universities,government agencies and companies. As such computer networks haveexpanded beyond the small communities of scientific researchers and beenapplied in a variety of fields such as education and busin ess,communication through such computer networks is beginning to alter theways in which people interact with one another in formal and informalways.

2.1. Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC)

The term, computer-mediated communication (CMC) or computer-basedcommunication, encompasses: computer networks, electronic mail, electronicbulletin boards service (BBS), and computer conferencing. CMC has beenfairly well studied in educational setting s, as a supplemental totraditional classroom teaching or as a deliverly mode of distanceeducation because of its distinct characteristics which make it differentfrom any other media. Poster (1990) notes that CMC substitutes writingfor spoken conversa tions and extends the domain of writing to cover areasof communication that previously were limited to face-to-faceinteractions, mail, and the telephone.

CMC, up to now, is mainly limited to textual communication where most ofthe social cues are stripped off. People only see text on the computerscreen in standardized formats which contains no dynamic personalinformation such as tones of one's voice or undescrivable facial expressions. 'Phatic' aspects of the face-to-faceconversation are minimal in CMC, which sometimes exacerbates communicationanxiety when the sender gets no reply (Feenberg, 1989).

The advantage of such text-based communication is that it reducesdiscriminatory communication patterns based on physical and social cuessuch as gender, race, socio-economic status, physical features, etc., andenhances the interaction with one another. As a result, CMC destabilizes existing hierarchies in relationships andrehierarchize communications according to criteria that were previouslyirrelevant (Poster, 1990). The text-based communication also augments theinteraction with ideas generated t hrough discussions. In CMC, peopletend to focus on the message more than the messenger, and the availabilityof an archived transcript of the proceedings facilitates review ofprevious comments and discussion, focusing on important ideas andconcepts.

Another important aspect of this standardized texual communication is anindividual's great control of his/her self image presented to otherpeople. In most cases, the only identity an individual user has is a"handle" name which may be, and most often is expected to be, fictional. Anonymity is complete and identity is fictionalized in the structure ofthe communication. Poster (1990) contends that "computer conversationsconstruct a new configuration of the process of self-constitution."Communicate rs can compose themselves as characters in the process ofwriting, inventing themselves from their feelings, their needs, theirideas, their desires, their social position, their political views, theireconomic circumstances, their family situation - thei r entire humanity.

In this sense, CMC is used for what Morioka (1993) calls "ishiki tsushin(conscious communication)". "Ishiki tsushin", according to Morioka, isthe communication for the purpose of social interaction itself, which isdistinguised from "joho tsushin (info rmation communication)". Goffman(1959) argued that individuals deliberately "give" and inadvertently "giveoff" signs that provide others with information about how to respond. Because of its anonymous nature of CMC, communicators can manipulate images of themselves much better than in face-to-face situations and presentthemselves anyway they want to be thought of. By doing so, people canfulfil the unmet desire to be a person whom they want to be.

In one sense, CMC enhances the sense of personal freedom and individualismby reducing the 'existential' engagement of the self in its communications(Feenberg, 1989). On the other hand, Poster (1990) contends that the CMCusers are bounded in many ways:

first, to the new, computerized system of positioning subjects in symbolicexchanges; second, by the prior constituting of the self, typically theexperience of that self as restricting, evoking the sense of transgressionwhen that self may be concealed o r suspended; finally to the languageused in the conversation, with all its semantic, ideological and culturalspecificity, a specificity which does not diminish when converted intoASCII codes.

CMC is usually asynchronous although there are also some synchronousapplications. The advantage of asynchronous communications is that peoplecan read, reply or send messages at their convenience. It is not only amatter of personal convenience; it mea ns communication crosses time aswell as space. Poster (1990) argues that CMC disperse the subject,dislocating it temporally and spatially. CMC also has multiple-receiveraddressability. People can send a message to any number of people as longas the receiver has access to the electronic community.

2.2. Virtual Communities

Marshall McLuhan (1964) said that the global media information networkingwould make us live in a global village. Subsequently, Webber (1967)argued the "nonplace community" which existed beyond any geographicalboundaries. According to Webber, the trad itional concept of"communities" which is geographically bounded should be replaced by theconcept of "communities" of accessibility. Thanks to the moderncommunication technologies, now communities can exist regardless ofmembers' geographical locations . In Jessie Bernard's (1973) terms, CMCchanges "the significance of space for human relationships. . . . we donot need the concept of community at all to understand how a societyoperates." Hiltz and Turoff (1978) extends this view by saying that:

We will become the Network Nation, exchanging vast amounts of bothinformation and social-emotional communications with colleagues, friends,and "strangers" who share similar interests. . . . we will become a"global village" . . . An individual will, lit erally, be able to work,shop, or be educated by or with persons anywhere in the nation or in theworld.

CMC builds nonplace communities of common interests, affinity, andassociation. They are called "online communities", "electroniccommunities", or "virtual communities." Those usually exist in the formsof online discussion groups such as those found on the global Internet and USENET computer networks, commercial videotexsystems, and personal computer bulletin boards. Such communities aredynamic; many people come and go at any time in the life of a community. There are two kinds of virtual commun ities. The first one is thecommunity where members know one another and usually have metface-to-face. CMC (especially electronic mail) is used mainly to maintaintheir routine communication, discuss issues relevant to the members, orcollaborate on so me projects. The second category is the community wheremembers do not necessarily know one another, but share common interests,value systems, or goals. CMC (especially BBS and computer conferencing)is used mainly to exchange information and ideas. T he major differencesof such virtual communities from traditional communities are: 1) thefreedom from geographical limitation; 2) the accessibility at one's ownconvenience; 3) the retrievability of information/messages; and 4) thelimitation of communicati ve acts to textual messages.

Those communities, however, are not entirely new and completely differentfrom traditional communities. Morioka (1993) argues that those virtualcommunities are just the geographical expansion of traditional communitiesin the sense that the members of a communitiy use CMC as a means to discuss and exchange information insteadof meeting face-to-face.

In addition to the above mentioned communities, another kind ofcommunities exist in computer networks, which can be called "communitiesof anonymity [ tokumeisei no komyuniti]" (Morioka, 1993). Thesecommunities of anonymity are the communities whose me mbers are anonymousand share virtual spaces for their self-expression which may not bepossible in the situation that they have to identify themselves. In suchvirtual spaces, people play whatever role they want to play, knowing otherpeople are also p resenting created images of themselves. In manycomputer bulletin boards, it is well known that some people use oppositesex's handle names (i.e., a man uses a female name or a woman uses a malename) and play the role of the opposite sex to their own. I n suchcommunities, people enjoy the virtual aspects of communication per se.

In summary, there are basically three kinds of virtual communities: 1) theones totally overlapping with physical communities; 2) the onesoverlapping with physical communities to some degree; and 3) the onestotally separated from physical communities.

3. Computer-Mediated Communication in Japan (Pasokon-Tsushin)

Most of the computer networks in early days started in the United States. In Japan which seems to be such a technologically advanced society, thecomputer-mediated communication has not been as prevalent as that in theU.S. According to Hiroshi Inose, director general of the National Centerfor Science Information Systems, Japan's computer networks are estimatedto be lag behind those of the U.S. by about 10 years (Hamilton, 1993). There are several reasons for the unpopularity of computer-mediated communication in Japan.

First of all, in business Japanese people still tend to rely onface-to-face communication instead of doing business through some mediatedcommunications, mainly because of the high context culture of Japan wherepeople tend to read between lines a lot w ith the help of social cues suchas facial expressions, tone of voice, the posture, etc. In addition, asmost business people in Japan do not have individual offices and have noneed to use e-mail to contact others in the office, LAN has not beenwidely implemented. It has begun to be used only recently with the"downsizing" trend.

Secondly, unlike most parts of the U.S. where local telephone charge is aflat rate regardless of the number of calls and the total communicationtime, Japan's local telephone service is charged per minute. It hasdiscouraged people to have modems at hom e.

Thirdly, there have been a negative stereotypical image about peopleindulging in computer communications who are pejoratively called"Otaku-zoku" meaning unsociable home-bound people.

Lastly, the majority of average Japanese have never learned to use akeyboard; in addition, unlike typing English, typing Japanese requiresadditional key strokes for inputting by Roma-ji which is a way oftranscribing Japanese phonetically into the Lati n alphabet, selectingappropriate Kanji, and shifting the mode of characters between Hiraganaand Katakana. This may be the main reason why facsimile is more commonthan e-mails in business communication.

In Japan, there are two distinct realms of computer-mediatedcommunication, each of which seems to have little interest in or awarenessof the other. In the following, one realm called "pasokon tsuushin" isdiscribed followed by the other, "Internet", re alm.

"Pasokon tsuushin" refers to public access BBSs and commercial onlineservices to which personal computers at home or in offices are connected. Recently, such computer networks are gaining popularity among people whoare not so-called "techie" and commer cial online services such asNIFTY-Serve of Fujitsu and PC-VAN of NEC (the two biggest commercialcomputer networks in Japan which have about 540,000 members and 578,000members respectively in August, 1993) are showing a tremendous growth intheir memers hip. NIFTY-Serve is affiliated with CompuServe in U.S. andmembers of NIFTY-Serve can have access to CompuServe without anyadditional fees. In a similar vain PC-VAN has an affiliation with GEIS(General Electric Information Services) and members of PC- VAN can haveaccess to GEnie.

The number of total users of computer networks in Japan is estimated to bearound 1,5 to 2 millions including some overlaps in membership (NikkeiCommunications, 1993). Most of the commercial computer networks had notbeen interconnected, but recently ma jor ones began to be interconnectedthrough their electronic services. Now both NIFTY-Serve and PC-VAN areconnected to the Internet though connection is limited to the exchange ofelectronic mail messages.

According to a survey of 969 users of commercial computer networks(Kawakami, et al. 1993), the largest number of people answered that themotive of using the computer network was to obtain the information theywant. However, it is noticeable that a larg e number of people alsolisted interpersonal communication (e.g., to exchange e-mails withfriends, to have discussion with those who have same interests, to find anew friend, to express his/her own opinions and ideas, to communicateanonymously, etc.) a s the motive to use computer networks.

Recently, people in business also started to utilize such commercialcomputer networks for the communication with their customers such as usersupports and product supports.

3.1. Communication Styles in Computer Conferencing

Among many services offered in computer networks, computer conferencingsuch as SIG (special interest group) and Forum is the most popular andthus the most profitable service for commercial network service providers(more than 60% of the total access tim e is dedicated to suchconferencing). At present the PC-VAN has about 150 such SIGs and theNIFTY-Serve has approximately 290 Forums. A Forum or a SIG is furtherdivided into several conferences of specific topics under a general themeof a particular F orum or SIG. Most participants of the Forums or SIGsuse handle names so that anonymity is maintained for those who don't wantto disclose their personal identities. Moreover, in the NIFTY-Serve thereis a function called "Home Party" where members crea te their ownpasswords for a particular party and set up a small informal meetingplace. The number of members in a Home Party ranges from a few to over100 during the last few years.

Those SIGs and Forums are managed by so-called SYSOP (system operator) orSIGOP (special interest group operator), who usually are computer networkenthusiasts and volunteer to spare their time in running the confernces. Some SIGOPs are admitted to becom e one after applying for establishing aSIG; Some are entrusted by a network operation center; and others wereasked by the previous ones. Those SIGOPs sometimes appoint sub-operatorsand board leaders as occasion demands. Usually there is no tangiblereward for being a SIGOP/SYSOP. The degree of influence a SIGOP/SYSOP hason the nature of discussion in the SIG varies.

Because commercial networks are trying to avoid cancellation of membershipby users as much as possible and most SIGS and Forums are moderated bySYSOPs or SIGOPs, discussions in these SIGS and Forums maintain relativelyhigh quality and "flaming" message s are usually elimitated.

In those Japanese online communities, people who read messages in computerconferencing but do not usually reply are called ROM (read only members)(In U.S. those are called "lurkers".) and those who actively participatein the conferences are called RAM (random access members or radical activemembers). One study showed that 83% of the people who subscribed to aconference had never "spoken" and, among those who had spoken at leastonce, the two-third of them had spoken less than three times (Kawakami, 1993). It is common in computer conferencing that a few people speak alot while a majority of people only "listen."

Kawakami (1993) listed six reasons why ROM outnumbered RAM a great deal:

1. reluctance to speak to people whom they don't know; 2. resistance toparticipate in the group which has been already formed and developedwithout them; 3. lack of expertise to participate and fear of beingevaluated by others; 4. difficulty of deciding to what extent they shoulddisclose themselves to others; 5. worry of not knowing how clearly theymake themselves understood; and 6. fear of getting criticism from others.

It should be noted that a ROM in one conference may be a RAM in anotherconference and a RAM in one conference may be a ROM in another conference;ROM and RAM are not the labels attached to individuals but the roles inone particular conference.

3.2. Emoticon (Emotional Icon)

Because computer-mediated communication is basically texual communicationwhich lacks in social and nonverbal cues seen in face-to-faceconversations, unintended confrontation often occurs as the result ofmisunderstanding. One way to lessen this problem is the use of "emoticons" or "smileys" to complement the lack of socialcues in CMC. Interestingly, smileys (or emoticons) used in Japanesecomputer networks are a little different from those used in American orEuropean networks, reflecting its unique culture.

typical smileys used in typical emoticons used inU.S./European networks Japanese networks

:-) regular smile (^_^) regular smile:-( sad (^o^;>) Excuse me!;-) wink (^ ^;) cold sweat:-)) very happy (^o^) happy

:-o Wow! (*^o^*)exciting:-| Grim (_o_) I'm sorry:-|| anger (^ . ^) girl's smile8-) smile with glasses (*^_^*;)sorry:^) happy face (;_;) weeping:^( unhappy (^_^;; awkward

As you see, smileys used in U.S./European networks have to be looked atsideways while emoticons used in Japanese networks are not. According toa study of the major nationwide noncommercial computer network in Japan,JUNET, by Nojima (1993), smileys are used to show (a) an affection or (b) that it's meant as a joke. The useof smileys to indicate a joke is also common in American/Europeannetworks, but its use to show an affection without any specific indicationis unique to Japanese networks. In add ition, Nojima also pointed outthat sometimes smileys are used to apologize some possible offense.

In high context cultures such as Japanese which rely heavily on contextualcues to communicate, people tend to pay special attentions to thepoliteness, appropriateness, the non-offensiveness, etc. even in textualcomputer-mediated communications. It is debatable that the use of smileysand emoticons is the best way to compensate for the lack of contexualcues; however, it is true that such smileys and emoticons are the culturalproducts of virtual communities.

In addition to the emoticons, a variety of colloquialism such as dialectsand infant languages, or vocalization of non-verbal behaviors are beingemployed to convey some contextual information which is difficult to betransmitted via text only.

3.3. On-Line and Off-Line Meetings

People who get to know one another through computer networks often gatherphysically as well. This is called off-line meetings (or Ohumi). Usuallysuch off-line meetings are held within a specific SIG or Forum where thedates and places are posted and m embers reply to them indicating ifthey're going to attend or not. Kuroiwa (1993) points out that most ofthe members who attend such off-line meetings are those who are active inhaving chat (real-time electronic conversation) in each SIG or Forum; notnecessarily active in participating in the discussion of the SIG or Forumitself. He hypothesizes that it is because off-line meetings areconsidered to be the extension of online chat.

Both on-line chat and off-line meetings are the communication by those whoshare the same virtual or physical space at a particular moment. It isdifferent from a regular on-line discussion which is asynchronous andwhere spontenaity is minimal. From a business perspective, off-line meetings are considred to highten themembers' sense of belongingness to the specific SIG or Forum which holds ameeting and strongthen the cohesiveness among its members. It usuallyresults in the overall increase of part icipation in the SIG or Forum.

However, not all kinds of Forums or SIGs are holding such off-linemeetings. Those Forums or SIGs whose main purpose is to exchangeinformation such as computer-related ones usually don't hold any off-linemeetings. On the other hand, the Forums or SIGs relating to lighter subjects such as hobby, living, music, sports, etc.

tend to hold off-line meetings.

Many people who attended those off-line meetings mentioned that they didnot feel like meeting another member for the first time. This tendencyseems to be stronger in this kinds of off-line meetings (face-to-facemeetings after participating Forums or S IGs online) than in the meetingsheld after some initial telephone conversations. Kuroiwa (1993) explainsthat it is because in CMC people discuss topics more in depth and ratherinformally. Sometimes a phenomenon called "network-high" (which has beendiscussed in the news group, fj.soc.media, ) occurs when a newcomer to acomputer conference such as a Forum or SIG becomes addicted to theconference.

4. Internet in Japan

Internet is the massive world-wide network of computers, comprising ofthousands of smaller regional networks and connecting over 4 million usersscattered throughout the globe . Although Internet is somewhat new inJapan, currently there are 21,252 Inte rnet hosts in Japan (Quarterman &Carl-Mitchell, 1993). Apart from the commercial networks such as theNIFTY-Serve and the PC-VAN, such Internet hosts in Japan provide academiccommunities with network infrastracture to facilitate collaboration andinfor mation exchange among researchers and scholars. Unlike the Internetin U.S. which is gaining tremendous popularity even among those who arenot within the academic communities, Internet in Japan is still somewhatlimited to researchers in universities, people in research laboratories ofconsumer electronic or computer manufacturers, and students in computerscinece.

The advancement of Internet in Japan has been somewhat slow compared withthat in the United States due to several reasons listed below.

1. Centralized computing has been dominant in Japan, used by banks,security houses and railway systems, etc., and even ministries like theMinistry of Education and the Agriculture Ministry have their own networksthat are not linked to each other. 2. LAN has not been widely implementedin offices. Even those companies who have implemented LANs don't havemuch interest in interconnecting with others. 3. Computer manufacturers inJapan such as IBM, Fujitsu, Hitachi, NEC, and DEC have been usingproprietary network protocols, which has made internetworking difficult.4. The TCP/IP protocol has not been recognized as a standard protocol. 5.Routers have not been readily available with support and training in theJapanese language since most routers have been developed in U.S. and theirdesign requires detailed knowledge of a variety of protocols. 6. Postalregulation and high cost of leased lines have not encouraged personalcommunication on networks. NTT has been making a big effort to make ISDNa nation-wide service while keeping leased lines relatively expensive. Asa result, the ISDN service is available in most cities in Japan but the cost to use leased lines hasbeen kept high. 7. With a population largely concentrated in a few urbancenters in the same time zone, not much demand for delayed networkcommunication. 8. There have been several incompatible methods of encodingJapanese texts (a 10,000 plus character system) into computers. (This isdetailed in the following section.)

4.1. Japanese Encoding Methods

As mentioned above, one of the reasons why the advancement of Internet inJapan has been somewhat slow compared with that in the United States isbecause of the difficulty of handling Japanese text in computernetworking. Since there are different encodi ng methods (JIS, Shift-JIS,and EUC) to input Japanese as well as different character sets, it is notas simple as using the ASCII character set to exchange Japanese textsbetween different machines.

JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards) encoding is being used for externalinformation interchange (i.e., moving information between computersystems) such as e-mail since JIS encoding is not very efficient forinternal storage or processing on computer syst ems. JIS encoding makesuse of seven-bit for representing two-byte characters and escape sequencesto switch between one-byte seven-bit ASCII and two-byte seven-bit Kanjicharacter modes. All the Japanese texts which are composed with encodingmethods ot her than JIS have to be converted to JIS encoding before beingsent out as e-mail (Lunde, 1993).

Another encoding method, Shift-JIS encoding, was originally developed byASCII Corporation in collaboration with Microsoft and is widely used asthe internal code for Japanese PCs and KanjiTalk (the Japanese operatingsystem for Apple Machintosh) as well as the millions of inexpensiveportable Japanese language waapuro (word processors) that have flooded themarket. It is a combination of a one-byte eight-bit code and a two-byteeight-bit kanji code, and uses no escape sequences. The conversionbetween Shift-JIS and JIS requires a complex algorithm (Lunde, 1993).

The third encoding method, EUC (Extended UNIX Code) was developed by AT&TUNIX Pacific and is implemented as the internal code for most UNIXworkstations configured to support Japanese. EUC is a two-byte eight-bitcode and supports not only Japanese but multiple character sets within asingle text stream. Although EUC does not make use of escape sequences asJIS does, EUC encoding is closely related to JIS encoding and conversionbetween EUC and JIS is easier (Lunde, 1993).

4.2. N1net

The first attempt to build a nation-wide academic network, the N1 project,was started in 1974. With the support from the Ministry of Education,three universities (Tokyo, Kyoto, and Tohoku), a common carrier (NTT), andthree computer manufacturers (Hita chi, Fujitsu and NEC) participated inthe project. The N1 protocol developed in the project was modeled afterthe ARPANET protocol. This network was the very first WAN which employedthe commercial packet-switching service called DDX -P, the domestic Japanese X.25 network started by NTT in 1980 (Ishida, 1992).

At that time, encoding Japanese texts was still difficult and thesignificance of electronic mails and news exchange facilities had not beenfully realized yet. Unlike the American counterpart, the N1net was aresource-sharing network but not an interper sonal communication network. On the other hand, the specification of the N1 protocol has been madepublic and the N1 protocol became the only network protocol in widespreaduse for linking heterogeneous computers (Ishida, 1992).

4.3. JUNET

JUNET (Japanese Unix NETwork) is the first nationwide noncommercialcomputer network designed for e-mail/e-news exchange. It was startedexperimentally in October 1984 by connecting two public universities(Tokyo Institute of Technology, and Tokyo Univer sity) and one privateuniversity (Keio University) through public telephone lines (at 9600bps)with UUCP (Unix to Unix Copy) protocol. JUNET utilizes UUCP connectionsinstead of full IP connections and its services are basically limited tonews and elec tronic mail. When JUNET began, international communicationshad to be in English or romanized Japanese, but later Kanji support in awindowed user interface to the messaging systems was included. Since thenthe amount of public traffic as well as JUNET membership has increaseddramatically (Shapard, 1993). Subsequently the network has expandedthroughout the major Japanese cities by adding a new site to an existingone. There are around 750 participating organizations (not onlyuniversities but also i ndu strial research laboratories) in December,1992. Its success mainly owes to the fact that it did not rely ongovernment funds and it was operated completely on volunteer basis(Ishida, 1992).

Since its inception, the administrators of the major hosts on the networkhad administered the network voluntarily and hold meetings monthly. Eachhost's connection costs have been paid by its institution. However, dueto the recent tremendous increase in traffic, JUNET could no longer relysolely on such voluntary management system. Accordingly, in December,1991, JNIC (Japan Network Information Center) took over its networkmanagement (mainly maintenance and allocation of domain names and IPaddresse s) and also JUNET Society was established in May, 1992, as thechief representative body of JUNET.

In April 1993, JNIC changed its name to JPNIC and started serving as ainformation provider of Japanese research networks in addition to thenetwork maneger.

4.4. BITNETJP

BITNETJP, an extension of the BETNET to Japan, came into existence in 1986by the support of IBM when the Science University of Tokyo established a56 Kbps link with the City University of New York. This is considered tobe the first international intern etworking in Japan. BITNETJP is now aconsortium called the Japan BITNET Association comprising of 82institutions, most of which are private universities in Japan. There hadbeen some confusion in using Japanese characters on BITNETJP mails butit's Ka nji code was standardized to JIS 7-bit code in April 1992. BITNETJP has formed CAREN (Consortium of Asian Research and EducationalNetwork) with Taiwan and Korea in July 1991.

4.5. WIDE Internet

WIDE (Widely Integrated and Distributed Environment) Project is a researchproject initiated by Dr. Jun Murai (then with University of Tokyo) in 1986in cooperation with universities, national research institutes, andindustrial research laboratories to d esign "the future JUNET". The mainobjective of the WIDE Project is to demonstrate the technology toestablish widely integrated distributed environment based on thehierarchical structure of regional disrtibuted environments.

The WIDE Project was the first wide area IP network in Japan whichemployed 64-192 Kbps leased-lines to inter-connect LANs in manyinstitutions. With substantial help from Prof. Torben Nielsen at theUniversity of Hawaii, WIDE established a 64 Kbps inter national link tothe US Internet through Hawaii in 1989. Through WIDE, it became possibleto use telnet and ftp services internationally in much the same way as inthe U.S. Internet. Since WIDE is maintained in a research project, manyresearch activiti es are being carried out using WIDE as a testbed. Atpresent, over 80 researchers are participating in 16 working groups ofsuch topics as data link, ISDN applications, multicast, TCP/IP over X.25and satellite communications, multimedia, etc.

The network the WIDE Project operates is called WIDE Internet whichconsists of 8 WNOCs (WIDE Network Operation Centers) and IP (internetprotocol) backbones (64 - 384 Kbps) connecting them (Sunahara, 1993). Though around 50 cooperations are connected to the WIDE Internet atpresent, it is forbidden to use the network for commercial purposes. Since September, 1992, the WIDE Internet has expanded its connection withcommercial networks experimentally and now it becomes possible to exchangeelectronic m essages with the users of NIFTY-Serve and PC-VAN as well.

4.6. Other Networks

In addition to the WIDE Internet, there are some other IP-based researchnetworks which have been developed independently: TISN (TodaiInternational Science Network), JAIN (Japan Academic Inter-universityNetwork), SINET (Science Information NETwork), HEP NET-J (High EnergyPhysics NETwork in Japan), and TRAIN (Tokyo Regional Academic InterNet). The transmission speed of those networks is currently limited to 64-192Kbps because of high tariffs, lack of funding and lack of coordination(Ishida, 1992).

TISN is the network which connects the Engineering Department of theUniveristy of Tokyo, 25 major research institutes in Japan, and theUniversity of Hawaii with DECnet and TCP/IP. TISN was started in 1989 andnow has a 128 Kbps link to the US Internet through the University ofHawaii.

JAIN is an experimental academic internet linking Tohoku University andother 82 universities mainly with X.25 packet switched lines provided byNACSIS (National Center for Science Information Systems). SINET is abackbone network maintained by NACSIS an d connects nine universities andsix networks at the speed of 128 - 256Kbps. Those IP networks maintain astrict AUP (acceptable use policy) and private corporations do not haveaccess to the above networks except the WIDE Internet.

In addition, there are a number of regional networks built around themajor universities in a particular region: e.g., TRAIN (Tokyo RegionalAcademic Network), Tohoku-INET, Tokai-INET, FAIRnet, KARRN (Khyshu AreaRegional Research Network), and NORTH (Ne twork Organization for Researchand Technology in Hokkaido).

In order to correspond to a increased demand of the network connectivityfrom various fields, a commercial service of providing Internetconnections is going to be started in the late 1993 in cooperation withthe WIDE Project.

4.7. Inter-Agency Research Information Network

Science and Technology Agency (STA) in Japan has proposed development of ahigh speed "inter-agency information network" connecting about 100 majorgovernmental research laboratories under various ministries and agencieswith optical fiber networks to be leased from commercial vendors such asNTT. Is is also being planned to eventually connect the inter-agencynetwork to NSFNET or other backbone networks in the United States, as wellas with research networks in other foreign countries (Tokyo Office, 1993).

4.8. JUNET News Groups

NetNews, one of the applications of the Internet, is very popular amongthe users of the Internet worldwide. Those newsgroups which originate inJapan and usually written in Japanese are the ones started with fj.*(meaning 'from Japan'). Like SIGs and F orums in "pasokon tsushin", Fjnewsgroups are computer conferences of a wide variety of topics. Fjnewsgroups and SIGs/Forums share some characteristics of Japanese virtualcommunities. However, one big difference is that in Fj newsgroups totalanonymit y is not allowed and it is the norm that a poster should identifyhim/herself first at the beginning of every message. This may be due tothe fact that Fj newsgroups consist of those who are in academic orscientific communities and getting to know peopl e in the field is also amajor purpose of participating such newsgroups.

Currently there are around 175 Fj newsgroups whose topics includeadministration of newsgroups, computer programming, computerhardware/software, life in Japan, annoncement for conferences, varioushobbies and recreations, science, societal/cultural issue s, etc. Thereis a constant debate of setting up new newsgroups or killing old ones andthe total number of Fj newsgroups is changing constantly. Overall, thenumber of Fj newsgroups is increasing over the years. Not all thenewsgroups are active and s ome of them haven't had any discussion forseveral months. The most active newsgroups on average are:

fj.jokes - anything about jokes and humor fj.rec.rail - discussion about railways and railroads fj.living - discussions about various things in daily life fj.rec.autos - discussions about automobiles, automotive products and laws fj.sys.mac - discussions about the Applie Macintosh fj.forsale - short, tasteful postings about items for sale fj.rec.animation - discussion about animated movies fj.rec.comics - the funnies, old and new fj.rec.games.video - discussion about video games fj.soc.men-women discussion about fairness, right, etc. between men and women

Fj Newsgroup Committee manages overall Fj newsgroups' activity anddiscusses the creation of new newsgroups, consolidation of existingnewsgroups, and the abolition of inactive newgroups. Among thesenewsgroups, some are moderated and some are not; some are closed (onlyregistered members can join) and some are open to general public.

During a two-week period, there are on average about 2500 posters andamong them the number of messages per poster usually ranges from around100 to one. About fifty percent of the total posters post only one

messages and about 85% posted less than five messages. As you see, itseems that only a few people post heavily and majority of them postsparsely. Among the total posters, less than five percent are femaleposters. This underrepresentation of women in newsgroups reflects theunderrepresentation of women in the computer-related professions in thereal life.

5. Conclusion

This paper tried to show various distinct characteristics of virtualcommunities in Japan. A variety of virtual communities are emergingworldwide within the constantly expanding cyberspace. To some extent,virtual communities are formed with the influe nce of cultures of existingphysical communities. But at the same time, they also create new cultureswithin the technological limitations and existing social norms.

Virtual communities do not require any fancy technologies such as ISDN andfiber optic cables; They can exist in regular public telephone lines. With the present technology, it is possible to create a global virtualcommunity without any geographical re striction. However, it is oftenoverlooked that the constituency of such virtual communities are the realhuman beings who are usually bound to a particular culture and a socialstructure. Though to a large extent such cultural differences are hiddeni n cyberspace because of the current technology, it is dangerous toassume that the people you are communicating with in cyberspace have thesame cultural background.

As virtual communities expand their scope and play more significant rolesall over the world in the future, international or more preciselymulticultural collaboration becomes critical for surviving. Accordingly,it becomes important to design communica tion systems which are sensitiveto different cultural values and social principles. In future, the moresophisticated communication technologies are going to be incorporated intothe infrastructure of virtual communities, the firmer bases may be needed to build communities which are global in social and cultural as well aseconomic and technological sense. The next missing link we have toovercome may no longer be technological one, but cultural one.

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