Top Japan-related people to follow on Twitter

Wed 3rd Dec 2008

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Update: It's now easier to keep up to date with new Japan-related Twitterers by following @JapanList.

Do you wish there were other ways to get information about Japan and learning Japanese other than reading websites? Do you want to make friends interested in Japan and learning Japanese?:

One such way is to follow people on Twitter. It's a great way to get an insight into daily life in Japan as well as connect with people who are learning Japanese. You can often find some very helpful tips about learning methods and resources.

Twitter?

I've been using Twitter since about April 08. I first signed up to keep in touch with friends, and added a couple of people I knew from their Japan-related blogs. However I quickly realized that it's a great way to get an insight into life in Japan and learn Japanese.

From Wikipedia:

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service, that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

The 140 character limit means people tend to be short and sweet with their messages, giving only the facts. It's also a great way to ask questions and get responses. Sometimes you have to be clever with your answers to fit all the information into one tweet, but it keeps the 'noise' level down.

It feels a bit like I'm stalking people!

Don't be afraid to follow people. The reason they are on Twitter is either to make new friends, promote their blog and follow interesting people, or a combination of all three! I love getting new followers, knowing that someone is interested in what I have to say, and I get to meet a new interesting person to follow back.

So where do you start? Here's a list, in no particular order, of people I follow that often have something interesting to say about Japan or learning Japanese.

Danny Choo on Twitter @dannychoo
Neil Duckett on Twitter @Neil_Duckett
Shane Sakata on Twitter @ShaneSakata
Peter Payne on Twitter @jlist
kenleewrites on Twitter @kenleewrites
Nick Ramsay on Twitter @nick_ramsay
ヨナス on Twitter @yonasu
2nihon on Twitter @2nihon
ジェイソン (Jason) on Twitter @matigo
Jamaipanese on Twitter @Jamaipanese
JapanMike on Twitter @JapanMike
Danisidhe on Twitter @Danisidhe
Laurel on Twitter @laurelrinkya
fatblueman on Twitter @fatblueman
Héctor García on Twitter @kirai
kansai_pj on Twitter @kansai_pj
Declan on Twitter @kanakanji (Everyone welcome Declan to Twitter!)
Jason Collin on Twitter @jasoncollin
Tofugu on Twitter @tofugu
Alex Brotman on Twitter @victorymanual (Everyone welcome Alex to Twitter!)
IsshoniVanessa on Twitter @IsshoniVanessa
Erick Kwiecien on Twitter @kwech
Paul Hartrick on Twitter @Paul_Hartrick
Xorsyst on Twitter @xorsyst
Michael Downey on Twitter @michael_downey
uktokyoite on Twitter @uktokyoite
Japancast on Twitter @Japancast
Black Tokyo on Twitter @blacktokyo
Skillster on Twitter @Skillster
1rick on Twitter @1rick
dshack on Twitter @dshack
Carlie Kimm on Twitter @GoddessCarlie
Philip Seyfi on Twitter @seifip
Shibuya246 on Twitter @shibuya246
...Oh and feel free follow me too @chrisgaunt :)

You may also want to check out my list of Top Japan-related websites to follow on Twitter and Top Japanese language twitterers to help you learn Japanese.

If you want to be added or removed(!) from this list please leave a comment.

Comments (imported from the previous Wordpress site)

Neil Duckett said on Wed 2008/12/03 13:21 JST:

Nice work creating this list Chris. Don't forget the headlines of ~50 Japan blogs (including Nihongo Notes) direct into your Twitter account by following http://www.twitter.com/Japan_Blogs

Chris said on Wed 2008/12/03 13:25 JST:

@Neil: Thanks, I'm saving Japan_Blogs and other automated Twitterers for a future article :)

Shane said on Wed 2008/12/03 13:28 JST:

Great idea to put this list together and thanks for including me - now I have to check to see if I am following everyone :)

j.nodehi said on Wed 2008/12/03 13:55 JST:

Thanks for the list .. ;)

Jason said on Wed 2008/12/03 14:05 JST:

I follow a few of those people already. Good to have a more complete list.

My twitter:

@jasoncollin

Jamaipanese said on Wed 2008/12/03 14:10 JST:

thanks for the inclusion :D

will go through this list as well :D

k said on Wed 2008/12/03 14:20 JST:

nice! i was wondering about the sudden jump in followers. thanks!

Laurel said on Wed 2008/12/03 14:37 JST:

Thank you!

Chris said on Wed 2008/12/03 14:51 JST:

@Jason: Added you to the list :)

Koichi said on Wed 2008/12/03 15:06 JST:

What, no @tofugu!? :P

Nice list - just followed a bunch of these people :)

Chris said on Wed 2008/12/03 15:17 JST:

@Koichi: I just knew I'd forget someone... oops! I'm already following you so not sure how I missed you... Anyway, I've added you to the list :)

Alex said on Wed 2008/12/03 15:39 JST:

You must read problogger too then, hey? :)

Nice site. I'm looking to kick off some tweets soon myself. I've only just got my foot in the twitter door.

Chris said on Wed 2008/12/03 15:50 JST:

@Alex: Yep :) Nice blog, I'll add you to the list too

Alex said on Wed 2008/12/03 17:19 JST:

Thanks Chris. Is there some neologism to describe being linked to in twitter? Like should I say, "Thanks for twitting me"? "I've been twitted."

PJ said on Wed 2008/12/03 18:25 JST:

Thanks for including me on the list!

- PJ

Chris said on Wed 2008/12/03 18:29 JST:

@Alex: Peoples updates are referred to as tweets, so I'd probably say "Thanks for tweeting about me" or "I've been tweeted".

Declan KanaKanji.com said on Wed 2008/12/03 19:12 JST:

Chris, thanks for the mention.
Great list there and plenty to keep me reading for the next while.

Mike (JapanMike) said on Wed 2008/12/03 19:28 JST:

Ooh well thanks! Follow me if you like hearing about crazy grammar conjugations and Japan's minorities! Or about the weather!

yonasu said on Wed 2008/12/03 20:09 JST:

So this is where the followers are coming from! I had a bunch of emails from Twitter to read this morning.

Thanks for the add, I'll get back to the list later today and add some of these.

ジェイソン (Jason) said on Wed 2008/12/03 21:41 JST:

Thanks for the great list! This should make it even more impossible to keep up with everyone on the net... Won't stop me from trying, though :)

IsshoniVanessa said on Wed 2008/12/03 23:34 JST:

Hi Chris, Having been tweeting for a couple weeks but kept thinking 'I must find more Japan type twitterers' to follow, but not really knowing how. Thanks - you've done it for me. Brilliant!

I tweet/blog about Japanese things in London. Mostly events that are easy to miss as they are spread all over the internet, but also articles, interviews, reviews etc.

Would love to join your list.

I'm @IsshoniVanessa

Chris said on Wed 2008/12/03 23:46 JST:

Glad everyone likes the list :)

@IsshoniVanessa: Added you to the list. Nice site btw, I wish I'd seen it when I was in the UK.

2nihon said on Wed 2008/12/03 23:49 JST:

Thanks very much for including me in the list!

Blogging tips and insight said on Thu 2008/12/04 04:20 JST:

Thanks for such a wonderful list. This is really good.

kwech said on Thu 2008/12/04 04:21 JST:

I've found Twitter to be such a valuable resource - whether it be discovering interesting, relevant news articles from the people I follow, or simply getting the word out about something I want to raise awareness for.

Personally, I like to sync Twitter to other social networks (facebook, friendfeed, tumblr, etc.) so that the info is automatically blasted to wider audiences, without having to update each one individually.

Great article, Chris! I see a lot of fellow JapanSoc users on here - time to follow up!

http://twitter.com/kwech

SIGEPJEDI said on Fri 2008/12/05 01:09 JST:

Chris, great post!

While I enjoy coming across lists such as yours, a list is often so stale and far from organic in keeping up with new interesting people on twitter. I created http://TopTweeple.com (just 2hrs of development thus far) to help spread the word on these Top Tweeple!

Check it out, and drop some #TopTweeple HashTags in ur tweets!

Cheers,
http://twitter.com/SIGEPJEDI

Mike said on Fri 2008/12/05 03:44 JST:

Hey!

My twitter:

@knowingnothing

Yoroshiku na!

Zurui said on Thu 2008/12/11 14:18 JST:

you can also follow Black Tokyo via Twitter via http://twitter.com/blacktokyo .

Adan said on Sun 2008/12/14 04:16 JST:

Wow! I'm finding the list very useful! THANKS!

@ciaopanda

Sarg said on Sun 2008/12/14 06:16 JST:

Wow great list, kudos to Tofugu for the link up.
http://twitter.com/Skillster

Rick Martin said on Thu 2009/01/08 15:17 JST:

Hey Chris.

When I was in China we had a Twitter account called @chinalist, and if you wanted to follow China you simply followed everyone that Chinalist was following.

Maybe make a @japanlist twitter account, and follow all the people you just mentioned?

Awesome list though, regardless of format.
Thanks!

Rick
http://www.twitter.com/1rick

Chris said on Tue 2009/01/13 23:15 JST:

@Sarg: I've added you to the list

@Rick: Good idea. I've added you to this list and also put together a JapanList twitter account.

matt holland said on Thu 2009/01/29 10:23 JST:

how about a list of interesting twitterers that actually post in Japanese? wouldn't that be more useful for someone trying to learn it?

Chris said on Thu 2009/01/29 10:43 JST:

Hi matt, You are right and that's why I also created an article for Top Japanese language twitterers to help you learn Japanese.

matt holland said on Thu 2009/01/29 10:59 JST:

Chris,

SWEET!

that's exactly what i was googling for when i found this article. thanks!!!

I hadn't thought of using twitter search. That's probably the best way. Just search for a topic in Japanese that interests you and off you go...

David said on Thu 2009/01/29 21:19 JST:

I'd love to get on there, if you don't mind. My stream is mostly student-life-in-tokyo stuff, with a few social media thoughts, Japanese posts, and random tokyo happenings tossed in.

Carlie said on Sun 2009/02/01 14:47 JST:

Well, I just signed up today after our meeting. Here's my url: https://twitter.com/GoddessCarlie

Michael said on Sat 2009/02/28 17:41 JST:

Ah! My twitter changed! It's now @michael_downey!

Chris Gaunt said on Sat 2009/02/28 17:53 JST:

Updated :)

GoodPeopleJapan said on Sun 2009/03/15 02:38 JST:

Nice Chris.
Great to meet you last night.
I've been using @Good_people but would rather develop one I have waiting for when I have time to develop at least a core of relevant information to my Group GoodPeople Japan. Of course it is:
@goodpeopleJapan
I'll get to work on connecting with anyone I haven't already next!

Japanese words said on Thu 2009/03/19 03:30 JST: