Is it just me, or do Japanese websites seem much more spartan than their American, Korean, and Chinese counterparts? Just look at the Japanese Wikipedia, or compare Asahi Shimbun's website to the Chosun Ilbo's. And websites for anime for the most part are very minimalistic too. A few background pictures, a bit of static decoration, and that's it. Where are the obnoxious flash-games, the flashy advertisements, the animated buttons I've come to associate with commercial internet?
Is it because so many Japanese web-users browse on cell-phones? Or it just to save bandwidth out of an ethical philosophy of frugality?
Just seems a little weird to me that one of the leading nations on the internet has such plain websites.
Especially for Wikipedia, I mean an article on something as visual as the OS-tans, and they don't have a single picture. Not a single picture for the article on Azumanga Daioh, Haruhi, or Evangelion. I mean, these were big-hit animes, but not a single picture? I mean, the Hungarian, Thai, and Indonesian versions of the EVA page have more pictures than the country of origin!
My guess is:
>Japan has a 99% literacy rate.
ogm! that just cracked me up. poor USAers.
> Especially for Wikipedia, I mean an article on something as visual as the OS-tans, and they don't have a single picture.
I'd guess that Japan doesn't have a ''fair use'' law, so it's not possible to use non-free images in the articles. This is common for not-english versions of wikipedia.
Correct. I learned this the hard way on the Japanese Wiki.
Pretty sure there aren't people on the internet who can't read.
Wow, a country that actually respects intellectual property...
who would'a thunk?
I feel kinda guilty about all my pirated anime now.... :(
Lol I'm wapanese who goes to otaku web sights that only have stories and I don't see pictures.
FUCKER, JAPANESE INTERNET HAS MORE PICTURES THAN THE ENTIRE INTERNET
I don't mean to be a jerkass, but what's with the pictures of all of these amazing cute Henshin ladies?
>>8 The Japanese internet is bigger than the US internet, just because you only see like, 1 japanese link in google doesn't mean that it is the only one there is.
>Yeah, he is right.
SILENCE GREEN TEXT. GET A JOB.
>cries
Japanese websites don't need pictures because kanji are pictorial so when Japanese people read, the kanji present images and conjure up memories.
of course, that's not true, I just wanted to act like a bullshit-spewing sociologist
>bullshit-spewing sociologist
oh I found a great phrase to describe the user base here.
>>6
Blind people have to rely on text-to-speech programs, illiterates could do the same thing.
You forgot to mention the fact that most Japanese websites only use generic HTML, and avoid goodies like CSS.
I was really just thinking about some of their newspapers and popular sites like 2ch which are really plain usually. And then sites marketing things too, usually those are really flashy.
I find it rather strange that most Japanese web sites look like something right out of the American internet of 2001.
No CSS, no XHTML, drab designs, etc.
They also have a fondness for proprietary file formats, especially MS stuff.
They don't seem interested in adopting a lot of Western technologies, like BitTorrent, and more advanced/efficient software and file formats.
I think the Japanese internet developed between 1995 and 2000, and hasn't budged since. I don't think they want to change.
Well, I see a couple of Japanese IPs on BitTorrent all the time, and that's usually for English-language material, so I'm guessing there's a fair share of Torrent users. Although I wonder if your average Japanese is less likely to pirate stuff than your average American.
>>16
American Internet 2001? Never remembered it being that bad, probably closer to 1998. CSS, XML, RSS just makes life easier, though I would say they are an extra burden to learn so I guess it would make sense to go with the 'if it ain't broken don't fix it' mentality.
>>17
Google Share or Perfect Dark, Japanese are humans too.
>>18 NO; Japanese people are gods....
They will create something like an armored Mobile-Suit and will pown the the Rest of the world!
Ｗｅｌｌ， ｔｈｉｓ ｓｉｔｅ ａｉｎｔ ｓｏ ｂａｄ：
http://www.morinaga.co.jp/hi-chew/
>>20
People that make their sites with Flash should be shot in the face.
Rule 34
fullforce lulz.
For one, no Japanese people know how to use stylesheets, and for another, few people in Japan have any clue about typography, choosing colors, layout, or any of the things that are important in web design.
>>25
Yes, yes, we've already established this. The question is WHY?
>>1
You know, this has suprised me too. I see a site containing this awesome 3d OpenGL game that's near-commercial-quality from this Japanese game developer, and it looks like he's still coding his site for IE/Netscape... (like it's still 1999)
[btw, I don't care about any misspellings above. It's 2:08am by me]
>>26
Maybe they think it's unnecessary. pretty webdesign is pretty pointless anyway, as long as everything is readable and accessible enough it's good enough for me.
They use ASCII to get their message across instead.
I don't know about pictures, but the Japanese people sure love their writing system. Just watch any (non-fictional) tv show and your screen is instantly filled with all sorts of squiggly characters.
if the sites are build with lots of graphics, we can't access the sites in the office, because office desks are not seperated just like in the states. so it is convenient to have less graphics.
another reason i think is we use internet by mobile phone. we don't need lots of images. i just want to access the text information than images.
You should see a Japanese porn site. Theres so much images and information coming at you, you get so confused and lose the hardon.
Why doesn't the Western Internet have less pictures?
>>32
bawww
i really do know what you mean
>Is it because so many Japanese web-users browse on cell-phones?
Sounds right to me.
Let's talk about something else.
>>29
s/ASCII/Shift_JIS/
those japs sure do love their table tags and giant red text huh
>>41
Those people have no need for the Internets and should go back to fucking school anyway instead of spending time here.
Brail requires reading ability, unless you're suggesting it reads out the page in pictures.
>>44
Mechanical signing arm.
lotsa reasons, probably #1 being different copyright laws and of course the cell phone thing.
You all forgot frames.
Why are so many Japanese sites still using frames? Not to mention that they still have web counters and actually pay attention to how many "hits" they get. What is this, 1998?
>>47 Yes. They are in a different timezone. Their timezone is still 1998.
>>47
I think if you bothered looking at personal websites of English users, and not just personal website of Japanese users, you'd find the same shit.
I for one don't mind simple pages, but they should at least be easily navigable. Though...great design = at least a couple of pictures.
And it's a valid point saying that cell phone surfing is a contributing factor, as they're using their phones for so much more over there than we do in the west.
I think a better question would be "Why is the west obessessed with every stupid little thing about Japan?"
I've always found commercial Japanese websites to be flashier(no pun intended) than American ones, for things like anime and games at least.
>>51
Keep in mind that "the west," if it uses the internet at all, uses it to check the news and weather and maybe a social networking site. what you're dealing with here is a very small subset of 'sperging japanophiles posting about the internet on a messageboard whose primary draw is mimicing the nature of a popular japanese messageboard.
ASCII RULES! That and all of their language symbols are images...so the Japanese internet does have the most images...and the best porn. Oh yes...Japanese porn is the best.
You all should browse moar. Japanese websites are on the extremes. It all depends on where you look. Also, pay attention to Mr. >>36
Japanese don't use Frash
They use HTML5 and HTML
Theirs web sites are very simple
Japanese internet > *
all this Web2.0 nowadays is getting me sick
>>60 I don't mind it in moderation, but sometimes just HTML is a much better way to go.
That said, the new YouTube layout is horrid
>>62
I was wondering. Why are people using so much unimportant shit in thier websites? Shouldn't it be much more minimalistic? All the people nowadays are using their phones and I really don't wanna wait for 5 minutes to see a bad rendered site with way too much JS.
created by japanese
>>63
Because it looks good and adds functionality.
You can do a lot of things with JS and Flash that you can't do with simple HTML. Some of those things are good, most are bad.
And even if people are using their phones, 3G/LTE connections these days are pretty fast.
>>63
Intel is funding (discretely and openly) companies/startups/whatever that specialize in bloated JS. The goal is that websites have so much shit tacked on that the update cycle can continue, because your i7 won't have enough power to display the latest tip calculator from HN.