<i>Japanese social networking users tend to like their privacy and therefore will tend to use a nickname instead of their real name.</i><p>Uhm, before Facebook, every social network, virtual community, online discussion board, etc, used nicknames. One of the things behind Facebook's success is that they didn't, instead they used real names.<p>Before, whenever a new interesting virtual community appeared, I used to find my existing "net-hooked" friends in there, because I knew which usernames they usually use, or I already discussed it with them over some other channel, resulting in me only meeting the usual suspects.<p>When Facebook came, I started finding people that I had never seen online before, it allowed me to get a connection to them because they used their real names. We were all used to nicknames, but it turned out to be a strength, not a weakness, to use real names instead. I don't see why this would be different in Japan.