Why Do Japanese TV Shows Insist on Editing Wikipedia While Understanding Nothing about It?

This talk examines the trend of Japanese TV shows editing the Japanese Wikipedia for purposes of entertainment, highlighting the negative aspects of ‘Collaboration of the Open’. Multiple TV programmes in Japan have edited Wikipedia to amuse their audiences by adding funny but irrelevant information to articles, which violates various regulations of the Japanese Wikipedia. In a recent example, TV Tokyo’s late-night talk show Ano-chan’s Dendendenpa on 13 February 2024 broadcast an episode called ‘Let’s Edit Wikipedia’ on which its host Ano-chan, a Japanese singer, edited the article on Paledusk, a Japanese rock band who were the episode’s guests. None of the information written by Ano-chan included footnotes, and the edits were nothing but vandalism according to the standards of the Japanese Wikipedia, comprising mostly personal and trivial information about the band, such as each band member’s sexual activities. The show was heavily criticised, and its Wikipedia accounts were blocked.
It was not the first time that Japanese TV shows had caused trouble by editing the Japanese Wikipedia. Introducing several examples, this talk ascribes such behaviour to the Japanese broadcast TV companies’ lack of understanding of Wikipedia as social infrastructure. Because Wikipedia is an open, collaborative project, some mistakenly regard it as a playground for trivial information rather than as a socially important information resource. Addressing the lamentable situation that even Japanese TV companies treat Wikipedia as a playground, this talk considers how to improve this situation through publicity and community building.