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Type of site | Online encyclopedia |
---|---|
Available in | Japanese |
Owner | Wikimedia Foundation |
URL |
ja |
Commercial | No |
Registration | Optional |
Launched | May 11, 2001 |
Current status | Active |
The Japanese Wikipedia (ウィキペディア日本語版, Wikipedia Nihongoban, lit. 'Wikipedia Japanese-language version') is the Japanese-language edition of Wikipedia, a free, open-source online encyclopedia. Started on 11 May 2001, [1] the edition attained the 200,000 article mark in April 2006 and the 500,000 article mark in June 2008. As of April 2024, it has over 1,413,000 articles with 13,413 active contributors, ranking fourth behind the English, French and German editions. [2]
As of June 2020, it is the world's second most visited language Wikipedia after the English Wikipedia. [3][ failed verification]
The Japanese Wikipedia has been accused of historical revisionism by a number of scholars. Particular focus has been given to its pages that cover World War II, in particular the page on the Nanjing Massacre ( 南京事件), which has been described as lacking pictures and expressing skepticism in the first paragraph of the introduction. [4] [5] [6] [7][ undue weight? ]
In March 2001, three non-English editions of Wikipedia were created, namely, the German, Catalan and Japanese Wikipedias. [8] The original site address of the Japanese Wikipedia was http://nihongo.wikipedia.com and all pages were written in the Latin alphabet or romaji, as the software did not work with Japanese characters at the time. The home page also showed an early attempt at creating a vertical text. [9]
The first article was named "Nihongo no Funimekusu" (meaning "Phonemics of the Japanese language"). Until late December in that year, there were only two articles.
In September 2004, the Japanese Wikipedia was awarded the "2004 Web Creation Award Web-Person Special Prize" [10] from the Japan Advertisers Association. [11] This award, normally given to individuals for great contributions to the Internet in Japanese, was accepted by a long-standing contributor on behalf of the project.
This section may be too technical for most readers to understand.(June 2023) |
The Japanese Wikipedia is different from the English Wikipedia in a number of ways.
Andrew Lih has written that influence from 2channel resulted in many Japanese Wikipedia editors being unregistered and anonymous. [24] Because of the lack of registered editors, Japanese Wikipedia editors as a whole interact less with the international Wikipedia community and the Wikimedia Foundation than editors of other Wikipedias do. Lih also wrote that Japanese Wikipedia editors are less likely to engage in edit wars than editors on Wikipedias of Western languages, and typically they would instead make alternative drafts of articles on their own userspaces. [25]
Jimmy Wales has pointed out at a conference that the Japanese Wikipedia is significantly more dominated by articles about pop culture than other Wikipedia projects, and according to one of his slides, "barely 20 percent" of the articles on the Japanese Wikipedia were about anything else. [26] The Japanese Wikipedia is known to have relatively few moderators as of early March 2010. [27]
Nobuo Ikeda, a known public policy academic and media critic in Japan, has suggested an ongoing "2channel-ization" phenomenon on the Japanese Wikipedia. [28] Ikeda argues that by allowing anonymous editing, the community spawns a type of culture seen in anonymous message boards such as 2channel, where hate speech, personal attacks and derogatory expressions are common, and also the source of entertainment. He also remarks on the "emotional-outlet" and "get rid of stress" aspects of Japanese Internet culture, where 90% of blogs are anonymous, a complete opposite of the U.S. where 80% of blogs are expressed under one's real name. Ikeda's arguments are not the only sources hinting cultural correlation, influence, overlapping users from 2channel. [29]
In 2006, Naoko Kizu (木津 尚子), a Japanese Wikipedian, stated that on the Japanese Wikipedia most people start out as page editors and uploaders of images, and that the majority of people continue to serve in those roles. Some people apply to become administrators. Kizu said "Unfortunately, some apply for this role out of a desire for power! And then are surprised when they get rejected." [30]
There are threads of textboards named "【百科事典】ウィキペディア第d刷【Wikipedia】" ( lit. '[Encyclopedia] Wikipedia Part d Edition [Wikipedia]') related to the Japanese Wikipedia on 2channel. In these textboards, the Japanese Wikipedia community informally discuss with other editors anonymously. On Twitter, they use accounts associated with their username and "#jawp" for mentioning the Japanese Wikipedia. [31]
Attention was drawn to the Japanese Wikipedia article on Kozo Iizuka ( 飯塚幸三), which used to describe his accomplishments in detail, with no mention of how he killed a woman and her young daughter in the Higashi-Ikebukuro runaway car accident that made him a household name in Japan. [32] An administrator applied protection to the article and later explained that the Japanese Wikipedia community takes legal risks arising from potential privacy violations very seriously, as there is no local chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation to support them in court. [33]
In a 2018 book, Florian Schneider of Leiden University compared and contrasted Chinese (Wikipedia and Baidu) and Japanese articles ( 南京事件) on the Nanjing Massacre. Schneider was critical of some aspects of each version, but noted that a 2015 version of the Japanese article attempted to justify the rape and murder of Chinese civilians by claiming Japanese soldiers were doing it in the context of apprehending Chinese defectors. Schneider also noted that there were also few to no images on the article; instead it contained a single image of Japanese soldiers checking Chinese prisoners of war for weapons. [6]
In a 2019 paper, Karl Gustafsson of Stockholm University compared various Chinese and Japanese Wikipedia articles. Gustafsson was critical of aspects of both versions. For the Nanjing Massacre article, Gustafsson noted that the first paragraph of the Japanese version expressed doubt about the details of the incident and "thereby portrays the Japanese military less negatively". For the article on the Battle of Shanghai, Gustafsson noted that the Japanese article generally emphasized violence by the Chinese combatants against both Japanese soldiers and civilians, while omitting mentions of civilian deaths from Japanese air raids. Gustafsson described the Japanese article as framing the Japanese invasion of the city as a reaction to Chinese aggression. [7]
In a 2021 article published in Slate magazine, Yumiko Sato expressed concerns regarding certain articles on the Japanese Wikipedia, suggesting the presence of historical revisionism and whitewashing. Notable articles mentioned included the Japanese Wikipedia articles on the Battle of Hong Kong ( 香港の戦い), comfort women ( 日本の慰安婦), the Nanjing Massacre ( 南京事件), and Unit 731 ( 731部隊). [4] [5] [a]
At the 10th Wiki Workshop on 11 May 2023 hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, Taehee Kim, David Garcia, and Pablo Aragón analyzed which articles were controversial on the Japanese Wikipedia. They found that articles on the "Historical recognition and post-war settlement" portal were particularly reverted, and that of the top 20 most controversial articles, 11 were related to Japanese war crimes and topics commonly associated with Japanese right-wing ideology. They also performed a network analysis of editors who mutually reverted other edits in general, and found that those editors were more likely to be editors of articles discussing topics susceptible to right-wing revisionist narratives. [35] [36]
This article has multiple issues. Please help
improve it or discuss these issues on the
talk page. (
Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Type of site | Online encyclopedia |
---|---|
Available in | Japanese |
Owner | Wikimedia Foundation |
URL |
ja |
Commercial | No |
Registration | Optional |
Launched | May 11, 2001 |
Current status | Active |
The Japanese Wikipedia (ウィキペディア日本語版, Wikipedia Nihongoban, lit. 'Wikipedia Japanese-language version') is the Japanese-language edition of Wikipedia, a free, open-source online encyclopedia. Started on 11 May 2001, [1] the edition attained the 200,000 article mark in April 2006 and the 500,000 article mark in June 2008. As of April 2024, it has over 1,413,000 articles with 13,413 active contributors, ranking fourth behind the English, French and German editions. [2]
As of June 2020, it is the world's second most visited language Wikipedia after the English Wikipedia. [3][ failed verification]
The Japanese Wikipedia has been accused of historical revisionism by a number of scholars. Particular focus has been given to its pages that cover World War II, in particular the page on the Nanjing Massacre ( 南京事件), which has been described as lacking pictures and expressing skepticism in the first paragraph of the introduction. [4] [5] [6] [7][ undue weight? ]
In March 2001, three non-English editions of Wikipedia were created, namely, the German, Catalan and Japanese Wikipedias. [8] The original site address of the Japanese Wikipedia was http://nihongo.wikipedia.com and all pages were written in the Latin alphabet or romaji, as the software did not work with Japanese characters at the time. The home page also showed an early attempt at creating a vertical text. [9]
The first article was named "Nihongo no Funimekusu" (meaning "Phonemics of the Japanese language"). Until late December in that year, there were only two articles.
In September 2004, the Japanese Wikipedia was awarded the "2004 Web Creation Award Web-Person Special Prize" [10] from the Japan Advertisers Association. [11] This award, normally given to individuals for great contributions to the Internet in Japanese, was accepted by a long-standing contributor on behalf of the project.
This section may be too technical for most readers to understand.(June 2023) |
The Japanese Wikipedia is different from the English Wikipedia in a number of ways.
Andrew Lih has written that influence from 2channel resulted in many Japanese Wikipedia editors being unregistered and anonymous. [24] Because of the lack of registered editors, Japanese Wikipedia editors as a whole interact less with the international Wikipedia community and the Wikimedia Foundation than editors of other Wikipedias do. Lih also wrote that Japanese Wikipedia editors are less likely to engage in edit wars than editors on Wikipedias of Western languages, and typically they would instead make alternative drafts of articles on their own userspaces. [25]
Jimmy Wales has pointed out at a conference that the Japanese Wikipedia is significantly more dominated by articles about pop culture than other Wikipedia projects, and according to one of his slides, "barely 20 percent" of the articles on the Japanese Wikipedia were about anything else. [26] The Japanese Wikipedia is known to have relatively few moderators as of early March 2010. [27]
Nobuo Ikeda, a known public policy academic and media critic in Japan, has suggested an ongoing "2channel-ization" phenomenon on the Japanese Wikipedia. [28] Ikeda argues that by allowing anonymous editing, the community spawns a type of culture seen in anonymous message boards such as 2channel, where hate speech, personal attacks and derogatory expressions are common, and also the source of entertainment. He also remarks on the "emotional-outlet" and "get rid of stress" aspects of Japanese Internet culture, where 90% of blogs are anonymous, a complete opposite of the U.S. where 80% of blogs are expressed under one's real name. Ikeda's arguments are not the only sources hinting cultural correlation, influence, overlapping users from 2channel. [29]
In 2006, Naoko Kizu (木津 尚子), a Japanese Wikipedian, stated that on the Japanese Wikipedia most people start out as page editors and uploaders of images, and that the majority of people continue to serve in those roles. Some people apply to become administrators. Kizu said "Unfortunately, some apply for this role out of a desire for power! And then are surprised when they get rejected." [30]
There are threads of textboards named "【百科事典】ウィキペディア第d刷【Wikipedia】" ( lit. '[Encyclopedia] Wikipedia Part d Edition [Wikipedia]') related to the Japanese Wikipedia on 2channel. In these textboards, the Japanese Wikipedia community informally discuss with other editors anonymously. On Twitter, they use accounts associated with their username and "#jawp" for mentioning the Japanese Wikipedia. [31]
Attention was drawn to the Japanese Wikipedia article on Kozo Iizuka ( 飯塚幸三), which used to describe his accomplishments in detail, with no mention of how he killed a woman and her young daughter in the Higashi-Ikebukuro runaway car accident that made him a household name in Japan. [32] An administrator applied protection to the article and later explained that the Japanese Wikipedia community takes legal risks arising from potential privacy violations very seriously, as there is no local chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation to support them in court. [33]
In a 2018 book, Florian Schneider of Leiden University compared and contrasted Chinese (Wikipedia and Baidu) and Japanese articles ( 南京事件) on the Nanjing Massacre. Schneider was critical of some aspects of each version, but noted that a 2015 version of the Japanese article attempted to justify the rape and murder of Chinese civilians by claiming Japanese soldiers were doing it in the context of apprehending Chinese defectors. Schneider also noted that there were also few to no images on the article; instead it contained a single image of Japanese soldiers checking Chinese prisoners of war for weapons. [6]
In a 2019 paper, Karl Gustafsson of Stockholm University compared various Chinese and Japanese Wikipedia articles. Gustafsson was critical of aspects of both versions. For the Nanjing Massacre article, Gustafsson noted that the first paragraph of the Japanese version expressed doubt about the details of the incident and "thereby portrays the Japanese military less negatively". For the article on the Battle of Shanghai, Gustafsson noted that the Japanese article generally emphasized violence by the Chinese combatants against both Japanese soldiers and civilians, while omitting mentions of civilian deaths from Japanese air raids. Gustafsson described the Japanese article as framing the Japanese invasion of the city as a reaction to Chinese aggression. [7]
In a 2021 article published in Slate magazine, Yumiko Sato expressed concerns regarding certain articles on the Japanese Wikipedia, suggesting the presence of historical revisionism and whitewashing. Notable articles mentioned included the Japanese Wikipedia articles on the Battle of Hong Kong ( 香港の戦い), comfort women ( 日本の慰安婦), the Nanjing Massacre ( 南京事件), and Unit 731 ( 731部隊). [4] [5] [a]
At the 10th Wiki Workshop on 11 May 2023 hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, Taehee Kim, David Garcia, and Pablo Aragón analyzed which articles were controversial on the Japanese Wikipedia. They found that articles on the "Historical recognition and post-war settlement" portal were particularly reverted, and that of the top 20 most controversial articles, 11 were related to Japanese war crimes and topics commonly associated with Japanese right-wing ideology. They also performed a network analysis of editors who mutually reverted other edits in general, and found that those editors were more likely to be editors of articles discussing topics susceptible to right-wing revisionist narratives. [35] [36]