In the early 2000s, Nishimura forged a partnership with another young entrepreneur who had risen to become chair of telecommunications firm Dwango: Nobuo Kawakami. That disruptive talent made Nishimura an attractive figure in Japan’s otherwise conservative media culture. That, in turn, generated an ironic, anime-obsessed subculture that traded in a particular brand of hard-right, anti-feminist, anti-Korean, and “identitarian” politics.

Even before he inspired Chris Poole, 4chan’s founder, to start the English-language knockoff, Nishimura had given millions of Japanese-particularly young men-the freedom to speak anonymously, candidly, and bluntly.

Nishimura founded the image board 2channel in 1999 and quickly cemented himself as a cult figure in Japanese culture. “However, Good Smile Company is in the process of leaving.”įrom Future Search Brazil to 4chan’s FutureĪs Good Smile’s involvement in 4chan has become clearer, more questions have swirled about Nishimura’s other partner. He and Good Smile’s president, Takanori Aki, had met at an anime convention and become friends, Nishimura said. When asked about Good Smile’s involvement in 4chan last December in an interview with publisher Shueisha, Nishimura confirmed the relationship. In December, The New York Times confirmed that Nishimura purchased 4chan with funding from three unnamed Japanese partners. The three parties, the document said, were in talks to acquire 4chan. Last year, WIRED obtained documents detailing a nondisclosure agreement involving Nishimura, Good Smile, and Tokyo-based telecommunications firm Dwango. The lawsuit was settled out of court, and the allegations were never proven. The accusations were picked up in The Ankler and The Hollywood Reporter, which cited a Good Smile representative admitting a passive investment in 4chan. In legal filings, they allege Good Smile was responsible for the distribution of potentially obscene sexually explicit anime products and merchandise ('lolicon') and that it, unbeknownst to its family-friendly corporate partners, was funding 4chan. In 2021, former employees of Good Smile’s Los Angeles office-embroiled in a legal dispute about the future of their employment-countersued the company.

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