When Stefan Schauwecker first launched japan-guide.com in 1996 while still a student in Canada, the Web site only featured an A to Z section on Japanese culture — "just a basic intro to Japan, a guide to look up cultural stuff and a little bit of history," the Swiss native recalled.
But his hobby turned into an occupation when he moved to Japan seven years ago and the Web site began generating enough advertising income for him to concentrate on it full time.
Now, with an extensive travel section, living guide, questions forum and numerous other contents, as well as links to various services, japan-guide.com has morphed into possibly one of the largest English-language Web sites dedicated to informing people about Japan and how to get around the country.