Gallery: Japan's Hottest Celebrity Bloggers

: If you go to Japan and tell people you're a blogger, they might assume you're a celebrity. While blogs are making incredible headway as a source of credible information in the United States, in Japan they are mostly thought of as high-profile diaries. "It's an evolution of Japan's diary culture," which dates back to the 8th century, says Ichiro Kiyota, an editor at Gizmodo Japan.

"Celebrities say things on blogs that they can't tell the mainstream media, and we all read it so we can get to know them better." Japan's celebrity bloggers run the gamut in terms of popularity and topics they write about, but they have several things in common: They're good-looking, they're geeky and they love to blog. Here are our 10 faves. Name: Shoko Nakagawa Age: 23 Blog: Shokotan blog Claim to fame: Japan's new Queen of Blogging makes geeks go wild with her impressive otaku cred.

Traffic: By some estimates 100 million pageviews per month.* Day job: Actress, singer, etc. Favorite topics: Nails, cake, cats, cosplayers, cellphone bling, sexy figurines. Most recently, she created worldwide buzz when she put a cat in her mouth.

*Traffic is self-reported unless otherwise specified. : Name: Kaori Manabe Age: 27 Blog: Kaori Manabe's Between You and Me Claim to fame: The original Queen of Blogging was one of the first celebrities to exploit the influencing power of the web. Traffic: N/A Day job: Actress, book author, former swimsuit model.

Favorite topics: Food she cooks; getting drunk. : Name: Chiaki Kyan Blog: Kyanchi Everyday diaries. "It's an evolution of Japan's diary culture," which dates back to the 8th century, says Ichiro Kiyota, an editor at Gizmodo Japan.

"Celebrities say things on blogs that they can't tell the mainstream media, and we all read it so we can get to know them better." Japan's celebrity bloggers run the gamut in terms of popularity and topics they write about, but they have several things in common: They're good-looking, they're geeky and they love to blog. Here are our 10 faves. Name: Shoko Nakagawa Age: 23 Blog: Shokotan blog Claim to fame: Japan's new Queen of Blogging makes geeks go wild with her impressive otaku cred.

Traffic: By some estimates 100 million pageviews per month.* Day job: Actress, singer, etc. Favorite topics: Nails, cake, cats, cosplayers, cellphone bling, sexy figurines. Most recently, she created worldwide buzz when she put a cat in her mouth.

*Traffic is self-reported unless otherwise specified. : Name: Kaori Manabe Age: 27 Blog: Kaori Manabe's Between You and Me Claim to fame: The original Queen of Blogging was one of the first celebrities to exploit the influencing power of the web. Traffic: N/A Day job: Actress, book author, former swimsuit model.

Favorite topics: Food she cooks; getting drunk. : Name: Chiaki Kyan Blog: Kyanchi Everyday Location: Tokyo Traffic: 25,000 pageviews per day. Day job: Bikini idol Favorite topics: Gundam; her cat; web video sites like Nico Nico Douga and YouTube.

: Name: Noriko Saito Blog: DropB Location: Tokyo Age: 25 Traffic: 250,000 pageviews per month. Day job: Web director of a media company. Favorite topics: Programming languages, iPhones, 12 reasons why she'd make a good wife (she can program; she's funny; she knows everything about 2channel ).

: Name: Asami Shinohara Blog: iGirl Age: 26 Location: Osaka Traffic: 120,000 pageviews per month. Day job: TV show host, manager of AuPair Japan. Favorite topics: Her blinged-out cellphone; her snack addiction; books she's reading ( The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan, Speed Reading Skills for Kings ); her desire to be as beloved as a Mac product.

: Name: Yumi Fukuda Age: 25 Blog: Yumiking Diary Location: Tokyo Traffic: 13,000 pageviews per month. Day job: Journalist Favorite topics: Her new FOMA F906i mobile phone; pictures of her breakfast. : Name: Johnny Kusakabe Age: 27 Blog: Johnny Kusakabe's Case File Location: Osaka Traffic: 3,000 pageviews per day Day job: Salaryman Favorite topics: Videogames; outrageous 2channel threads about eating cockroaches.

He also has a parody blog called the Shoutan blog . : Name: Yuko Matsumaru Age: 29 Blog: Matsu-You's Eye Location: Tokyo Traffic: N/A Day job: TV MC, designer, model Favorite topics: Lacy, romantic pink things (a pink Care Bears pouch, a shiny pink Zima). : Name: Benijo Blog: Do You Like Geeky Women? Traffic: N/A Day job: R&D at a social media consulting firm.

Favorite topics: PHP and MySQL, debugging, making Japan's No. 1 geek databases. : Name: Shuho Saito Age: 32 Blog: Shuiro Note Location: Tokyo Traffic: 5,000 pageviews per day Day job: Homemaker who used to work at Six Apart.

Favorite topics: Fancy homemade lunch boxes; affiliate links to household items like pots, pans and mixers. : Name: Kamiji Yusuke Blog: Kamiji Yusuke's Official Blog Claim to fame: He holds the Guinness World Record for "most unique users on a personal blog in 24 hours." Traffic: 6 million pageviews per day. Favorite topics: Posts titled "Um," "Ah" or "Last Night" trigger an instant wave of thousands of comments by fawning fans..

Mon Jul 2008 02:07 (6 months ago)