If you want to keep up on Japanese slang, opinions and what’s popular, you’re going to need to step into the “Twitterverse” or “Twittersphere.” In Japan, though, we don’t use either of those names.

日本人はツイッターをウェブ上の活動空間ととらえ、「ツイッタランド」と呼ぶことがあります (Nihonjin wa tsuittā o webu-jō no katsudō kūkan to torae, “tsuittarando” to yobu koto ga arimasu, Japanese people regard Twitter as an activity space on the web and sometimes call it “Twitterland”).

Since its inception, the social networking service has been particularly suited to communicating in Japanese since, thanks to the linguistic element of 漢字 (kanji, Chinese characters), you are able to say much more in Twitter’s 140-character limit than you can using English. Even the acronym LOL is shorter in Japanese, where you can get the same point across with a simple “笑” or “w,” which both stand for 笑う (warau, to laugh).

その結果、世界のツイッター利用者数において日本は3位のインドを上回り、アメリカに続く2位を誇ります (Sono kekka, sekai no tsuittā riyōsha-sū ni oite Nihon wa san’i no Indo o uwamawari, Amerika ni tsuzuku ni’i o hokorimasu, As a result, Japan surpasses India, which is in third place in terms of the number of Twitter users in the world, and boasts second place after the United States [which leads]).

Privacy is also a draw for users here as 75% of Japanese tweeters are anonymous and only 19% use their real names. This ability to not have to reveal who you are has both positive and negative aspects. On one hand, people aren’t always held accountable for what they say and that leads to bullying. On the other hand, users don’t feel the need to adhere to age-related etiquette and can speak more freely.

ツイッタランド can feel like a fictional place. With so many people assuming characters as their avatars, maybe this fantasyland effect is the result. So when something unbelievable happens, you may see people ask, どの世界線の話？ (Dono sekai-sen no hanashi? Which “world line” are we talking about?) 世界線 (Sekai-sen, world line) is a term from physics that represents the path an object takes in a 4D spacetime. Since people sometimes feel like ツイッタランド exists in a parallel world, they’ve taken to using this term to express disbelief when something incredible happens. You may also hear of an アニメの世界線 (anime no sekai-sen, anime world line).

No matter the 世界線, Japanese Twitter users still tend to mind their manners in their interactions with others. For example, if a tweet of yours バズる (bazuru, goes viral) and causes people to respond, they are likely to start off with the phrase, FF外から失礼します (Efuefu-gai kara shitsurei shimasu), which loosely translates as “Excuse me for commenting, even though we don’t follow each other.” In this case, FF stands for “followee” (フォロイー, foroī) and “follower” (フォロワー, forowā) and the phrase implies that the person commenting has no intention to follow you but would still like to interact with you. They just don’t want to be rude.

These kinds of preface statements come from a Japanese tendency to avoid conflict. Thus a phrase you might see in a Twitter user’s profile would be, 無言フォロー失礼します (Mugon forō shitsurei shimasu, Please excuse me for following without commenting). 無言 (Mugon) means silence, and the word is also used as an adjective to describe silent acts such as 無言電話 (mugon-denwa, a silent call), which is a definite annoyance. Twitter users who do 無言フォロー prefer to follow active users without much communication, an act known as “lurking” in English. Since etiquette dictates you introduce yourself before joining a community, though, users will feel the need to put the 無言 excuse in their profiles.

It’s also considered polite to フォローバック (forōbakku, follow back) a user after they’ve followed you (celebrities and influencers being an exception). If you reciprocate with a follow, they might thank you with, “フォロバありがとうございます” (Foroba arigatō gozaimasu, thanks for following back), フォロバ (foroba) being the short form for フォローバック. Japanese Twitter users tend to take this 相互フォロー (sōgo forō, mutual followers) strategy seriously as a way to nurture their own network.

It’s also good manners to apologize for retweeting someone’s quote if you use it as a springboard for your own opinions. Start with, 引用RT失礼します (inyō ārutī (ritsuīto) shitsurei shimasu, please excuse me for retweeting the quote) if you don't want to upset the creator of the original tweet.

Since many think quote-retweeting is more aggressive than just replying to a tweet, people try to mitigate the aggressiveness with this phrase. After all, what people are most afraid of on Twitter is 炎上 (enjō, blow-up) because that’s a one-way path to getting canceled. Even anonymous accounts are inclined to avoid the risk of 炎上.

For example, when retweeting a tip about conversation starters in Hokkaido, the account @edoya_official wrote: “嬉しすぎるツイートを発見してしまいました、、、過去ツイですが引用RT失礼します！！” (Ureshisugiru tsuīto o hakken shite-shimaimashita,,, kako tsui desu ga inyō ritsuīto shitsurei shimasu!!, I totally discovered a tweet that is so happy, though it’s from the past, excuse me for retweeting the quote!!).

As is apparent in other countries, social media culture is always evolving. Even with these polite norms in place, the shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had a huge impact on Japanese Twitter, resulting in many trending tags. In particular, current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's announcement of a state funeral for Abe triggered an intensive political debate with tags such as #安倍晋三の国葬に反対します (Abe Shinzo no kokusō ni hantai shimasu, I disagree with a state funeral for Shinzo Abe) and the opposing tag, #安倍晋三の国葬に賛成します (Abe Shinzo no kokusō ni sansei shimasu, I agree with a state funeral for Shinzo Abe) battling it out in ツイッタランド.

Private accounts, trolls and other Twitter lingo

The katakana word アカウント (akaunto, account) is used to refer to an individual Twitter account. However, you’ll sometimes see it shortened to 垢 (aka), which means “dirt” or “filth” but has the same sound as the first two kana in アカウント.

This association results in a couple of other terms: 鍵垢 (kagi-aka) and 裏垢 (ura-aka). The first is short for 鍵アカウント (kagi akaunto, private account). On its own, 鍵 (kagi) means “key” or “lock,” so a 鍵垢 is a locked account.

The second term is short for 裏アカウント (ura akaunto, secret account). The kanji 裏 (ura) means “back” or “opposite side,” and is used in words like 裏切り (uragiri, betrayal), 裏道 (uramichi, backstreets) and other hidden things. Celebrities are more likely to have 裏垢.

Corporations like Nintendo and NHK do well on Twitter, but there’s a person behind those tweets and they’re known as the 中の人 (naka no hito). They get this moniker as their real identities are unknown just like a person inside of a mascot suit.

The term 炎上 (enjō, going up in flames) is used when someone stirs up a storm of criticism online. This may come at the hands of 荒らし (arashi, internet trolls). 荒らし is a noun, and the verb 荒らす (arasu, to devastate) is used to describe a troll’s acts. The word can be used for real-life crimes too, such as 車上荒らし (shajō-arashi, stealing valuables from a car).