Twitter is an immensely popular social network in Japan. If you want to keep up, then it’s a great place to be. The usage of Twitter is very simple, 280 characters to express yourself, so there are countless ways to use the service. I want to focus on a particular subculture within Japanese language Twitter, the reading account, or the interestingly named 読書垢 (dokusho aka).
Why the Strange Name?
If you know Japanese, but are not already familiar with Twitter reading accounts, you may wonder why the word 垢 (dirt) is used. This is only used phonetically, as an abbreviation for “account” (aka). You may wonder why people don’t just use アカ to avoid confusion, but you have to remember, you only get 280 characters, so it’s best to save space in your ＃読書垢 hashtag!
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