While certain Internet imports have had difficulty catching on in Japan, Twitter has managed to take off. The service (which translates as mumbling in Japanese) successfully launched a mobile version in October 2009, and brought itself to even more users in the mobile crazy nation.

A Tokyo bar is showing sporting events and even has screens showing tweets simultaneously. 16.3 percent of Japanese Internet users tweet, more than the 9.8 percent for Americans. Twitter even managed to surpass Japanese social site mixi with monthly visitors, according to Nielsen Online.

“Japan is enjoying the richest and most varied form of Twitter usage as a communication tool,” says Japanese writer Daisuke Tsuda. “It’s playing out as a rediscovery of the Internet.”

Part of the attraction for Japanese users is that it takes fewer characters to convey ideas than other languages, leading to more articulate tweets. Also, in contrast to the image of Japanese being reserved, many use the site as a public way to communicate and connect with others.

“Twitter is turning out to be like a cocktail party,” says Noriyuki Ikeda, CEO of Tribal Media House. “Japanese see how fun it is to network and casually connect with other people.”

Companies are also using Twitter as a way to reach out to customers. Retailer Tokyu Hands uses Twitter to answer questions from customers and clothing chain Uniqlo has used Twitter to setting up a virtual line in which people tweet with one another and get free stuff.

Motohiko Tokuriki, chief executive of consulting firm Agile Media Network, thinks Twitter could be the hit new word of the year, and honor in Japan. “It’s telling that Twitter was translated as ‘mumbling’ in Japanese,” he says. “They love the idea of talking to themselves.”

Source: Los Angeles Times