Hiroyuki Nishimura

Hiroyuki Nishimura
Hiroyuki Nishimura in Sapporo, 2005
Born	November 16, 1976 (1976-11-16) (age 35) Kanagawa
Nationality	Japanese
Known for	foundation of 2channel

Hiroyuki Nishimura (西村 博之, Nishimura Hiroyuki^?, born November 16, 1976) is the founder and a former administrator of the most accessed Japanese message board site^[1] 2channel. He currently holds a position of Director at Niwango Inc.,^[2] known for its service Nico Nico Douga.

In Japan, he is usually known by his given name, Hiroyuki.^[3]

Career

Nishimura was born in Sagamihara, Kanagawa but raised in Tokyo. He founded the company Tokyo Access in 1998 while he was at Chuo University. In May 1999, he opened 2channel while he was studying at the University of Central Arkansas. In June 2001, he founded Irregulars and Partners, Inc with Ichirō Yamamoto (handle: Kirikomi Taichō), but later left there.

2ch

Nishimura, Ichirō Yamamoto, and Yoshihiro "Yakin" Nakao, President of ZERO Co.Ltd. were the early central management members of 2channel, but Ichirō Yamamoto left the group in 2002, and Nishimura resigned from his company.

Nakao (also known by the handle FOX) is a server specialist, and has been managing most of the 2channel servers since the Neomugicha incident, a case in 2000 in which a 17-year-old posted messages threatening to hijack a bus, and then went on to kill one person in the hijacking. The event caused a huge wave of user access, and the old servers went down.

As of 2008, 2ch generates revenue upwards of ¥100 million per year for Nishimura.^[4] The site is also run by 300 "volunteer administrators" who receive no pay. Nishimura justified this with the comment, "I don't think that's all that different from some dude who opens a convenience store in front of a train station. They can make a million yen a day."^[4]

Personality

Nishimura is known for loving Umaibō, a Japanese snack, and for a period of time the server names of the 2channel site were taken from the names of Umaibō, like pizza, curry, potato, and so forth.

He occasionally talks about self responsibility on the Internet, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between truth and lies in the huge quantity of information available online. He has been quoted as saying, "If you would not like others to know something, you should not write it anywhere."^{[citation needed]}

Though Nishimura has lost some number of libel lawsuits with a considerable amount in penalties, he is quoted in some number of interviews that he has no intention of paying. "If the verdict mandates deleting things, I'll do it," he says. "I just haven't complied with demands to pay money. Would a cell phone carrier feel responsible when somebody receives a threatening phone call?"^[4]

Position

As of January 2007, Nishimura is an advisor to Skip-Up KK, CEO of Tokyo Plus KK, Director of Mirai Kensaku Brazil (Future Search Brazil) Ltd., and also a Director of Niwango Inc., the company that launched Nico Nico Douga.^[2]

External links

	Japan portal
	Biography portal
	Internet portal

• Interview in RealTokyo
• Interview in Japan Media Review

Notes and references

1. ^ "Nielsen Online(Japan) reports on November, 2008 internet usage". Nielsen Online. 2008-12-24. http://www.netratings.co.jp/New_news/News12242008.htm. (Japanese)
2. ^ ^{a b} "Niwango Company Info". http://info.niwango.jp/info/. Nishimura at top of list of directors (Japanese)
3. ^ Katayama, Lisa. "Meet Hiroyuki Nishimura, the Bad Boy of the Japanese Internet." Wired. May 19, 2008. 1. Retrieved on January 31, 2009.
4. ^ ^{a b c} "Meet Hiroyuki Nishimura, the Bad Boy of the Japanese Internet". Wired. http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-06/mf_hiroyuki?currentPage=all. Retrieved 2008-06-06. 

Persondata
Name	Nishimura, Hiroyuki
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	November 16, 1976
Place of birth	Kanagawa
Date of death
Place of death