U.S. Bloggers vs Japanese Bloggers

     When I moved to the U.S., I started a blog in Japanese, and I told my ESL teacher who is an American young woman that I had my own blog, which is not this blog by the way. She asked me, "What are you writing about?" I told her, "I write about my everyday U.S. life." She asked me again, "Everyday life? What is the theme of your blog?" She didn't seem that she understood what I said. Later, I knew that the way Japanese people think about blog is very different from American people do. Today, I'm going to write about what are difference between U.S. bloggers and Japanese bloggers.

     
1. Blog Themes (Concrete Theme vs Diverse Theme)
    While most U.S. blogs have a concrete theme such as cooking blog, financial blog, beauty blog, fashion blog, DIY blog and so on, most of Japanese bloggers write about diverse themes. One blog has many themes like my blog. Many Japanese people think blogging is like writing journal online.  
 

2. Purpose (Business vs Hobby)
     Many U.S. bloggers release useful information and try to monetize their blogs. Some U.S. bloggers are blogging to improve their careers or hope that more people know their businesses.　In contrast, many Japanese bloggers enjoy blogging like as their hobby. Most Japanese bloggers don't know their blogs could be monetized, or even if they know about it, most people don't monetize their blogs because they believe that it only could earn very little (It's true.). In addition, many free Japanese blog websites don't allow you to monetize your blog.
  

3. Who Is Blogger? (Real Name vs Anonymous)
    While many U.S. bloggers share their picture and a real name, Japanese bloggers don't. Japanese celebrities and very few Japanese bloggers reveal those, but most Japanese bloggers are anonymous. Because Japanese people don't reveal a real name, nobody knows who the blogger is. That's why they can write true opinions. (Some people sometimes write about complaints about their family's relationship and get a sympathy from readers. However, people never know who is being complained.) Many Japanese people believe that releasing their real name on their blogs is not a good idea.
   
    
4. Which Is More Successful?
    It's absolutely the U.S. bloggers. In order to get more traffic to your blog, it's important to have a concrete theme and release useful information. It's important to reveal blogger's information including a real name. Few Japanese people own their blogs for their businesses and try to have a concrete blog theme and reveal a real name (but very few people). However, most Japanese bloggers think that blog is just hobby, so it's not important to be successful.



 My Blog Story
     At the beginning of my U.S. life, everything were new to me. Getting driver's license and driving my own car in the U.S. were challenging to me, and going to supermarkets was even exciting, so I sometimes wrote about my experiences in the U.S. in Japanese on my blog. It was like my journal, and I wrote those for myself in order not to forget my everyday life.  If you have ever lived abroad, you probably know that experiencing new culture is very fun and living abroad is very challenging. After years, I stopped writing on my blog in Japanese. It's because writing an entry in Japanese took me an hour or so. "How about starting English blog? It must be challenging but is good for me." I decided to stop writing in Japanese and started writing more in English. Finally, I started this blog to improve my English skill. At first, I wrote about my everyday U.S. life like before, but next year I noticed that I was eligible to monetize my blog with Google Adsense, which I had never expected. Since then, I have tried to release useful information sometimes and hoped that my blog could help someone. I perhaps should have written my entries with one concrete theme, but now I think it's okay. It's my Japanese style blog. :)  I want to keep blogging to help someone, but it's also for myself. I want to keep my blog in order not to forget my life. Probably you are not interested in some of my entries like about my traveling, but I will keep writing diverse themes on my blog just like I have done in the past six years. :)  

    
       These are my entries you might like.

■2 Best Japanese Pens - Pilot Dr. Grip and Mitsubishi Uni-Ball Pure Malt

■6 Japanese Products Loved by Foreign Tourists in Japan

■8 Interesting Japanese Kitchen Gadgets! 

■Top 10 Most Popular Japanese Foods

■Top 10 Products You Should Buy at Japanese Supermarkets (for Beginners!)

■My Top 10 Favorite Japanese Snacks

■My Top 10 Favorite Japanese Sweets

■Japanese Man Fought Off Bear with Karate

■Why Do You Love Japan?

■Top 5 Japanese Sunscreen Products

■Top 5 Most Popular Japanese Charcoal Soap

■4 Reasons Why I Love Kose Softymo Cleansing Oil 

■Popular Japanese Facial Cleansing Products - What I Want to Buy in Japan

■Top 5 Most Popular Japanese Bath Salt Brands

     My entries related to popular and cool Japanese products can be seen here.
 
     My entries related to Best Japanese Beauty Products can be seen here.

     My entries related to Japanese sweets and snacks can be seen here.

     My entries related to beauty can be seen here.

     My entries related to Japan can be seen here.

     My entries related to cooking can be seen here.