ひろゆき:はい、こんばんわ! ひろゆきです。昨日僕は日本に帰ってきたばっかりで、若干眠いんですけども、時差ボケ的な何かで……。という訳で、ジェームスと1カ月間一緒にいた訳ですけども。

ジェームス:どうだった1カ月?

:眠いねー。今ね。

:眠いねー、昨日来て。でもね、我々のために今日、日程も合わせて来てくれたクリストファー・プールさん!

: So, Poole nice to seeing you!

:ぱちぱちぱちぱち。みんな、ぱちぱちしてあげてー。 (大きな拍手)

:Could you introduce yourself a little bit to our Japanese guys?

ムート:My name is Christopher Poole, go by Moot online. I'm the founder of 4chan, and most recently I've got a company called Canvas.

:どっちが通訳する?

:会話しながらする? 今回日本に来てくれたのも、まあ2ch作った人と会いたいっていうのが元々のきっかけだったよね。South by southwestで会って。で、日本で会おうっていって。彼はハンドルネームがムートって言うんだけども、本名がクリストファー・プール。

:で、4chanの創業者と。今はCanvas……(ムートに向かって)Is it the CEO of Canvas? Are you a CEO, Chief Executive Officer?

:Yes.

:Canvasって新しいサイトもやっていて、そのCEO。

http://www.canv.as

:Which country is this?

:American Samoa.

:アメリカン・サッモア-?

:アメリカン・サモア。

:そんなんがあるんだ! as、アメリカン・サモア?

:ドットが入っているけど、普通に読むとCanvas。キャンバスっていうと、英語でペンキを塗る時の下書きみたいな……。

:なんか絵を描く時の?

:そう布で出来たような。

:あれはキャンバスって日本語で通じると思うんだけどね。

:キャンバス通じるよね。

:(ムートに向かって)それをリアルにしていて画像をいじったりできるサービス。I'm telling what Canvas is. He said it's like a painting board and …

:(トーク進行表を持ち上げて)If we gonna go by this, Hiroyuki is going to talk about 2ch!

:2chについて先ず僕がしゃべればいい訳ですか? I gonna tell about 2ch. 2chはボクが11年前位にツクったサイトです。

:はいっ! ありがとうございました、ひろゆきさん。(拍手)

:I've made 2ch about 11 years ago. That's it!? It's a kind of message board. 掲示板でー、ボクがやってた頃は月1,000万人くらいが見に来てる。で、The core Unique users are like 10 million per month. ページ・ビューが2億から3億くらい。200 million to 300 million page views per day.

:ウン。

:but I’m not sure now. So, when I was a manager, that’s the number. So I’m not sure the number now. という訳で今の数字・・よくわかんないんですど。ボクがやっていた頃はそんな感じの数字でした。はい。2chの説明は大丈夫なのかな? 日本の人は知っている訳ですよね。Japanese users know much about 2ch, so I don't need to tell in Japanese.

:じゃ、英語でやった方がいいんじゃない?

:4chan guys don't know about me, and don't know much about 2ch. 英語で英語の人だけに聞くことって難しいよね?

:(笑)

:How many 4chan guys know about 2ch? ……って、アンケート出すの難しいもんね?

:出せる、出せる。

:じゃ、英語で出せます?

:スタッフ大変だけど、多分10秒位あれば出せると思う。

:(ムートに向かって)So, what I want to do is the questionnaire as how many people know the 2chan.

:Hmm.

: But a lot of people like…

:(PCにあがってきているコメントを見ながら)Can you follow this?

:Yeah.

:(PCのモニター上のアンケートを見ながら)ジェームスは英語だと格好いい……。

:じゃ、日本語だと何だって感じだよね? So it’s bias how much I speaking English is…

:(遮って)What is this, "www"?

:”www” means to laugh. The (笑)ですね。

:ウン。

:Number 8 is “Pachi”, (手を叩きながら)clapping. How old are you?

:I'm 23 now.

:ひゃっほー!

:You’re 23? Wow! Hiroyuki, how old are you?

:34.

:Nooooooooooooooooooooo! えー38じゃなかった?

:Yes! いや、4ですよ。

:えー、34? それはちょっと…。

:You are around 40, right?

:まあアラフォーですよ、それはしょうがない。

:So…23 years old, when did you graduate your university?

:I didn't.

:You didn't?

:No,no,no, I was 15 when I did founded 4chan, so I was in high school. And I went to a school, I went college after high school, and I left the school to work. And I went to school again, I went back to the school and left the school for the second time to found a new company called Canvas.

:ふーん…。はい、通訳をちゃんとやって。

:学校を中退して15才の時に、2003年に4chanを作って、でその時に作ったのはいいけど、やっぱり新しい企業を作るためには、もう一回学校に戻って、でキャンバスという会社を作った。まあ彼、後でたぶん説明するけども、やっと資金も集めて、ちゃんとした企業として運営中と。

:何で4chanを作ろうと思ったのか? Why did you make the 4chan?

:While I was 15 during the summer in 2003, I an anime.

Well, it’s fin of the summer of 2003, I found an anime, but cannot when I even watch any anime, so it’s…

:Which kind of anime?

:more likely to mention shows like The Cowboy Bebop, so I discovered the anime with a number of subforms that people post about Futaba-chan. So I thought this Futaba like I can't read Japanese, so I just went to the Futaba to enjoy the pictures. What really struck me about it is that it's visual culture, visual kind of language.

It was just a lot of fun to browse, especially that being able to refresh the page, and get like a whole new slate of posts. I mean most of those English like western BBS, you could spend say, like in 5 or 10 minutes and a kind of exhausted over the thread and more than you have to wait hours or a days to come back to be a kind of fresh again. And was really exciting about Futaba was the fact that you can just sit there every minute, you could just refresh, and you could get whole new thread paths. So I just took there, the software, and translated into English and made a few minor tweaks to it. Fill it up for English users!

:長いー!(笑) Every now and then you've got to stop! 簡単にいうと、4chan作ったのは、やっぱりふたばちゃんねる見た時にすごく惹かれて、もともとあちらの若い子も日本のアニメが大好きで。やっぱりアニメという切り口から入って、ふたばちゃんねる見て、当然日本語が出来ないんで、ちょっと絵だけを。毎回リフレッシュするたびに新しいものがどんどんどんどん出て来て、その面白さに惹かれて、それで4chanというのを作った。でもちょっと聞きたいのは、何で4chanという名前にしたか?って聞きたくない?ていうかその前に何で、2chという名前付けたの?

:とりあえず4chan先聞こうよ。

:So, one of the questions we accede from the users is….Why did you decide to call your service 4chan?

:I was just based on Futaba which is 2ch. Believe 3chan was taken at the time! So for us it's the next available number, so I registered it. Original one was a .NET, but the domain got taken away. It didn't lapse but it was suspended at one point back in 2003, so I registered a .ORG, spinning out of sense!

:なるほど。1回「.net」でURL取ったんだけれど、それが取られて「.org」にしたんだけども、2ちゃんねるっていうのがふたばが持ってて、3ちゃんねるもどこかが取ってて、その次ぎは4ちゃん……ていう順番で決めたらしい。

:(スタジオの一方を指しつつ)最初のエンジニアが実はいるんですよね。There is the first engineer of 4chan, right?

:(笑)

:Is his name John?

:Yeah.

:一番最初のエンジニアも実は日本に一緒に来てて……。

エンジニア:ヨロシクオネガイシマス。

:The green shirts guy from Motocon.! Knock, knock, not green shirt anymore.

:So you’re also mentor of favorite player.

エンジニア:Yes. but we also work for people to translate of the clean images for players to…

:Is there one of your modulators, too. 4chanのモデレーターも隣に来てる。

:一応エンジニアもやったし、今のファビコン、横に出る四つ葉のあれを作ったのも彼。他にも、エンジニア、アレックスとかいたんですけどねって話みたいな。

:A bunch of kids, so young! How old are you guys?

エンジニア:I'm 26. I was 18 at the time when we started. And I am a part of green shirts.

モデレーター:Three of you were 15. And you are over older.

:みな若いねー! 平均年齢23、24ぐらい?

:23、24、と26。訳すのあきらめてるよね? It's your job, man!

:あー、忘れてただけ。Everybody is young! (ひろゆき、ジェームス笑)

:Except you!(笑)

:Now I said the average age of the 4chan. Everybody is near moderator’s age. What is your user base like, how many people demographic wise, it's hard to get a data?

:It's hard to get a good data. But it is said that it seeded to a small community about 20 people in a chat room, and since then, almost exactly 8 years ago, October 2003, since then it's grown from 20 users to now about 12 million per month. Make about a million posts per day, half a billion page views per month.

:10月1日の2003年に20くらいの人達が集まって4chanを作って、8年後、今現在、ユーザーが1,200万人、だいたい1日のヒット、ユニークが100万人、それと1カ月のヒット数が5億。凄いねー! I mean that half a billion, that's just huge! What are the people coming back for? What draws them back?

:日本語で言わないと。

:は?

:今の質問! 

:え……。あ!失礼!

:You've got to translate it into Japanese, and you have to speak it in English, right?

:答えが来てからまとめて言った方が、段取り的にスムーズに行くじゃない? まっいいや……5億っていうのは凄い数字だけど、何で同じ人たちが何回も何回も見るか? 何が凄いか?ていうのを聞きたい。(ムートに向かって)See! Now he is confused.(笑)でしょー?So it’s just a same question in Japanese.

:Why the people come back? Most people enter to search through the random board /b/, which is easily largely the most large system notorious board on the site. I think people start using the sight come and through and it as a gateway drug and eventually they funned out to the other boards. And eventually come to find their own little community there, like the anime board and the videogame board. And…

:Are those most popular?

:Yes. So that it goes /b/ ,/a/ ,and there is a /s/, which is pornography...adults.

:(スタッフに)これ繋がってんだよね? Could you show us what 4chan is? さぁ、何がでるかな? 画面切りかえてもらっていですか?こっちに。

:(スタッフに)パソコンの画面に切り換えてもらっていい? 彼が言ったのは、まあ/b/が一般的なボードで、/v/とか/a/とかゲーム・アニメ系がすごい強くて、/s/はエッチ系。

:I'm wondering what's gonna happen!

:This is the main page, here is one of our main boards of the site, anime board!

:People say “Be careful.”! Anime board…

:Yeah. They've been watching the show! It’s anonymous, it’s anonymous already!

:早~い!

:おー!もう上がってんだね。So fast... you are here!

:Actually, talking about finish letters, of their favorite animes,

:So you are once…

:So it looks exactly in the functions, to Futaba! essentially, exactly to Futaba. I mean that the style suited to be a little different, there are some of the features, there’s like a feeder from pictures, but any more rest. It’s a kind of tweak but you can see Futaba's from top to bottom. True to its root!

:ふたばのリンクもついて、機能的にはほとんど一緒だし、まあレイアウトとか多少違うけども。基本的な機能は、全く一緒。でも早いよね、彼の画面キャプチャ取って、すぐ上げたのは。That was anime, right?

:Yeah.

:So let's go to see /v/ for video games!

:Does /v/ ever They actually talk about video games there. This /v/ ever talk about video games.

:Hmm…...,hmm, not so……

:Not so bad.

:ねえ。

:あまり過激じゃないね?

:They are good!

:Right now.

:わりと今日は普通!?

:ねえ!なんか、もっと…。

:じゃ/a/に行きますか?

:They are finally matured!

:(笑)They are so many things. This board is so bad, “How did you not already know it was second most popular board”.

:やっぱりアニメとゲームが一番強くて、その2つが断トツトップ。

:So between video games and animes, which is more popular?

:The video games are.

:ビデオゲームの方がポピュラー。

:今、どれぐらい見てるの? Now, how long do you watch 4chan these days?

:I intend to check it every day. Still actually somehow manage to read e-mail daily, I don't respond all my e-mails. But within a day or two, I try to read every e-mail. I think I'm top five in terms of band and duration, so I still preoccupied for my modulation. (ジェームスに向かって)You still want me to go to /jp/, I don't think it's gonna happen!

:ノー?

:ジェームス、うなずいてないで訳さないと。

:彼は新しい会社を立ち上げて、それのCEOとして運営しているんだけれども、やっぱり毎日このサイトを見ているし、メールにも出来るだけ返信しているし……トップ5のモデレーターでもある。You are spending a lot of your time for works in 4chan.(ひろゆきのPCメッセージを見て)So he is asking what's /jp/?

:JP is subordinated as Japan general, to kind of capture some of the stuff that didn’t really fall cleanly into the anime board something like Tohou, and it became kind of a Japanese culture but non anime.

:アニメ・ゲーム以外で、日本の文化に関係するものが/jp/に入ると。何だかんだ言って、すごい日本の文化に特化してるよね。あ、「.JP」のサイトにしか出して上がっていないのに、もうJpegが上がってる!

: How do people in 4chan know about Japanese culture like Tohou?

:Mainly younger, I mean that demographic scene is like younger male. So pretty much people with nerdier nerdder interests.

:オタク系で、男性で、若い者がこのへん見てる。やっぱり日本の文化に興味あるのは若者。

:でも日本でオフ会やった時には、結構年いったの人がいたような? You've got a meeting in Akihabara. I watched the pictures of that, and it looks like they were older than you.

:We posted about 24 20 hours in advance, about 30 people showed up, 5 or 10 Japanese people and a bunch of foreigners who living here. They were definitely younger.

:どこでやったのイベントは?

:秋葉原。秋葉でイベントやって、24 20時間前に告知して、でもそれでも30人来て、まあ日本人、プラス日本に住んでいる海外の人、アメリカの人。So how long you've been in Japan? If you were are able to do that?

:This is my sixth day.

:6日目なんだって、日本に来て。 So what do you think so far?

:It's gonna be a great trip. It's I mean I supposed to just seeing friends, but he wanted delicious food. I've got it in Akiba. Somebody brought me a questionnaire questioner instead of “looking for the tourists”.

It asked a lot of questions about like why were you afraid of coming to Japan, because of the radiation or not. I guessed they assumed everybody is scared of travelling there. I have to check ‘No' to everything! They asked why I was here? And I said eating delicious foods and shopping! Oh Yeah, mostly of the foods part though.

:秋葉でそのイベントに行った時に、皆やっぱり海外の人に、日本に来て怖くないのか?って。怖くないって意味は、まあ放射能とかね。何で来たの?って聞いたら、食べ物と買い物をしに来たと。

:Actually many Americans are scared of radiation in Japan?.

:It's weird how people are freaked out!

: I still think the term for that is “Fly-Jin.” All the “Gai-Jin” who left the country!(笑)

:それ面白いね。造語なんだけど、飛び立った外人、「Fly」の外人、「フライ・ジン」。「フライ・ジン」がもう殆どいない!