Meet Hiroyuki Nishimura, the Bad Boy of the Japanese Internet

Meet Hiroyuki Nishimura, the Bad Boy of the Japanese InternetMeet Hiroyuki Nishimura, the Bad Boy of the Japanese Internet

By Lisa Katayama

I'm sitting in a sterile white conference room waiting for Hiroyuki Nishimura. Japan is a nation where the 3:17 train arrives every day at 3:17 — not 3:16 or 3:18 — and Nishimura is 45 minutes late. The PR assistant who painstakingly coordinated our interview, a typical salaryman with a dark suit and receding hairline, looks increasingly uncomfortable.

"I was late to two other meetings today," Nishimura says when he finally arrives. It's a semi-apology, delivered as he shuffles across the room in Velcro sandals. He has a slightly nasal Tokyo accent and speaks in an informal idiom rarely used in business settings. "I can't wake up in the morning or get to places on time. I often wonder whether I'm an adequate human being. Seriously."

In Japan, there are specific rituals surrounding the exchange of business cards. It's customary to proffer your card with two hands while bowing slightly, then study the other person's card intently for several seconds before putting it away. Nishimura fumbles in the pockets of his cargo pants, then sticks his card in my face as he receives mine with a dismissive nod.

The stereotype of Japanese office culture — rigid, formal, and hierarchical — is still the norm in most of the country. Nishimura observes none of those rules. In spite of that, or perhaps because of it, the lackadaisical 31-year-old with a soul patch and wispy goatee has become the most influential figure on the Japanese Web.

We're in the downtown Tokyo headquarters of Dwango, the company that runs a Web video site called Nico Nico Douga (Smiley Smiley Video). In just over a year, Nicodou, as it's affectionately known, has become the fifth-biggest online time-suck in Japan, with users spending more than 12 million hours on the site each month. Dwango owes much of that success to its partnership with Nishimura.

His...