Japanese Cautiousness toward Business Blog

Are Business Blogs really useful for Business? Asks the title of an article in the IT Pro section of Nikkei Business Publications online. The writer starts referring to the rising number of experiences of marketing blogs, to end up focusing on two of the three most commonly cited example in the cautious Japanese journalism world these days (P&J Japan Ariel campaign, Nissan Tiida Blog and Ajinomoto Mamaya Cooking ABC). These make in fact most probably for the current bulk of Japanese marketing campaign oriented blogs, a subcategory of what business blogs could be. Despite the scarcity of cases available for study, the lack of historical experience, the fact that patterns of business blog usages are widely open to conjectures and experimentations, to sum it up: despite the fact that nobody knows for sure whether business blog is good for business, or not, the article takes the usual cautionary stance of Japanese journalism toward new concepts. A new piece of hardware may have received a more positive consideration.

Although part of a column called The Journalist Eye, a piece of supposedly opinionated writing in a sea of factual news, i suspect the journalist to have no hands-on experience at blogging. Six months ago, I too had no experience and could not make any sense at first of what the fuss was about. Getting wet into practical usage was the best way to have an opinion. It still is. I was about to leave a comment as suggested at the end of the screen by clicking on the ad-hoc button. I was greeted by the usual but now so much annoying "Register First" message. I left right away. The primal condition to express an opinion on blogging, even a dumb one as my own, is first to try an do it by oneself. It's easier than flying to the moon so there is no excuse to not give it a try at least, moreover when you are a journalist.