Tokyo Friendfinder
There are more than a few books out there whose origins lie in the new-fangled cellphone novel, but a new Japanese tome is the first we’ve come across to grow out of an online forum.
Hatsugen Komachi (‘Speech Town’), which has just been published at ¥1,200 ($12), is a hefty 288-page book covering over 100,000 subjects raised on the website of the same name.
Like the site, the book deals with agony-aunt type problems submitted by forum contributors, who are almost exclusively women.
The publisher – Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest newspaper – says they’ve picked the most relevant and interesting issues for the print edition.
Among the 2,000-3,000 daily threads are pleas for advice on everything from infidelity and family issues to debt and problems at work. Oh, and kids hitting parents with slippers.
(Crossposted to TechRadar)
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04:43 PM 
Mark Hiratsuka •
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Internet | Japan 
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