A recent article in The New York Times that revealed only 2 percent of the Japanese online use Facebook, compared to 60 percent of Americans online, led me to wonder about how Japanese newspapers are using social media.
To find out I spoke to Daisuke Nakai, a staff writer for the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun. Nakai said the newspaper is using Twitter to a wide extent, and their main Twitter account twitter.com/#!asahi has about 400,000 followers.
Twitter is the only social media platform the newspaper is using, Nakai said. Although the social networking platform Mixi is also quite popular in Japan,and has some features similar to Facebook, it is not being utilized by newspapers, he said.
“In Mixi real identities are not used…As a general rule, the Japanese population seems to be more resistant than people living in other countries to let others know about their private lives, so I don’t know if Facebook will catch on,” he said.
Regarding the future of social media and newspapers in Japan, Nakai said, “I think that social media will become a more important tool in reporting the news, whether it means reaching out to readers for information, or readers connecting with each other.”
Newspapers & Social Media 
Japan and other more “private” societies need to keep in mind that for many, the real value in Twitter and other social media sites is found not in “sharing” info/data about private lives, but in generating and sharing “the stream” of relevant, valued content in one, unified place. I.e., I like getting NYTimes, WSJ, Denver Post (local), industry group news, and content recommended from peers all from Twitter. Like RSS, but more focused and easier user interface integrating alongside my email. Just makes things more efficient.
Thanks for your comment and very true!
Many of Japanese those who use Face book do not put their real picture on it because they are alert to malicious use of their information by others. In fact, Mixi had several fraud problems before. Unlike the U.S.A. people are not protected by laws in Japan. This is the main reason Face book is not able to become so popular in Japan as in the U.S.A. Many people in Japan are against social media, so major newspapers will lose its credibility if they use them for information sources.
Very interesting insight. Thanks for your comment!