On Jan. 27, a new keyword climbed to the top of the rankings in Japan to steal first place on the blog search engine Technorati. Dougajin — literally "Video People" — was the name coined by organizers of Japan's first video-blogging event, held one day earlier, to describe the country's latest category of online media-maker.
Known for their culture of diary writing, one that has skyrocketed the local blogosphere to the top of the world rankings in terms of its sheer size, a growing number of Japanese are making their first steps communicating through a very different medium.
The medium is moving images, and the format — the latest in social media — is the "vlog".