Good job, dude.

Burns
Professor *********
English 101
05 September 2005
The Influence of 2channel

Although many may not have heard about 2channel, most residents of Japan have heard of this unique internet community. Allowing many to escape the social norms of Japan through anonymous discussion, it has given birth to textual conversations on just about any subject. It has also been the place of bomb threats, frequent pranks, and a top selling story. As the largest and most influential internet discussion board in Japan, 2channel is starting to have an important impact on Japan's society.
Opened by Hiroyuki Nishimura in 1999, 2channel is the largest internet discussion forum in the world with over two million visitors a day. One of the factors that led to its success was the feature of anonymous posting. Japan has a very strong sense of hierarchy, rank, and position; the constant use of honorifics reinforces this sense of politeness and formality to others. The anonymity allows users to say things that they normally wouldn't say and this lets them discuss topics honestly. Also, since all users can post anonymously, new users can quickly integrate themselves into the community once they learn all of the board's unique jargon. Attempts at creating an English language discussion board that is similar to 2channel have all failed and haven't had even a fraction of the number of users.
One of the reasons that 2channel gained popularity is from various real life incidents. One of them is the Neomugicha Incident in which someone posted a threat on the boards and then an hour later a seventeen year old boy hijacked a bus and stabbed one passenger to death. Later on, a man wrote a bomb warning for a Tokyo station, but was quickly caught by the police. The immense size of 2channel's community has contributed to many antics that have affected the real world. One of which is when Lotteria, a fast food chain, asked for suggestions on what flavor their next milkshake should be. The users of 2channel decided to send millions of suggestions that cabbage should be the next flavor. Lotteria then actually made a few thousand cabbage flavored milkshakes at select locations. Several celebrities have tried to sue 2channel for slander, but couldn't since no individual could be pinpointed. This arose from caricatures of a celebrity who uses a wheelchair being posted and also from insinuating that an all women's mahjong league were all lesbians.
A recent event of 2channel has been the story of Densha Otoko, which means “Train Man.” The story is of a 22 year old introverted nerd, who saves a girl from the harassment of an obnoxious drunk on a train. She then sends an expensive thank you gift to him. Wanting to ask her out on a date he then asks for the help of the users of 2channel for dating advice. He starts to meet the woman regularly and using the advice from the resourceful 2channel users, he gets a haircut, purchases more fashionable clothes and starts to have a better and more sociable personality. A few months later he eventually confesses his love to her, and she accepts. This story has now been released as a novel, four comic series, a top selling movie, and TV drama series. The man that claimed to be the Train Man never told his real name so some of the money made from these series has gone to charities instead.
In conclusion, the 2channel website has only been active for six years and has garnered millions of users a day. And in the process, it has influenced Japan by causing deaths, love stories, and cabbage flavored milkshakes. More and more frequently news stories have been covering it in Japan, as well as in other parts of the world. The importance of its community will only continue to grow.