Search the music section on social networking website Twitter and you'll see a long list of known global megastars, including Britney Spears and Kanye West. Directly under Justin Timberlake is Japan's only representative on the list — Ryo the Skywalker, the stage name of Ryo Yamaguchi.

The Osaka-born, Tokyo-based dancehall MC uses his musical moniker as his Twitter ID. He currently has nearly 263,000 followers, making him a local Twitter celebrity of sorts. But this was not his intention when he first signed up for the service.

"I used to be an official recommended user in Japan," he says. "I started using Twitter in April of 2009 to try and get information from the U.S. and the Caribbean.