Why This Topic Landed in Japan

In Japan the word "Twitter" never actually went away — television programmes still say it on air, and the rename to X was absorbed as a label change rather than adopted. That left the old name floating unclaimed, so a story about another company picking it up had a hook beyond the usual foreign-startup item. There is also a long local memory of alternatives: mixi2, Threads and Bluesky each had a moment, and each ended with most people still on the same timeline. The claim that the marks were abandoned is the new service's own argument, and the judge's remarks on it were preliminary, and the dispute with X is still running.

Key Reaction Themes

  • The network is the product — The single most common response was that people use the service because other people are on it, which flattened most discussion of features or principles.
  • The trademark question — Posters were caught on whether a name bought outright can be used by someone else, and an opposite reading held that whoever discarded it has no standing to complain.
  • Affection for the old build — Specific bygone behaviours got named, including hosting images off-site and unofficial retweets, though the most common wish was narrower: put the name back on the existing service.
  • Portability of what people already have — Whether an existing account and its follow graph could move across was treated as the practical test of whether to bother.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

The launch of Twitter.now

A company founded by Twitter's former trademark lawyer put out a new social network using the bird name and logo.

Sources: livedoor News, twitter.now, Gadget Gate

Comments:

  • "Save images on an external service and link them, unofficial retweets - reproduce early Twitter properly, please."
  • "Just changing the current X's name back to Twitter would be enough. There are still TV programmes that say Twitter."
  • "Make it so I can move my current account over as is."
  • "People only use it because people are there."
  • "People just gather where people already are, so it's hard to take them with you. The ones who lost it and said they'd go to Bluesky if X used AI ended up... lol"
  • "Incumbents have strong vested interests in social media too. Just reviving old features rather than something innovative isn't going to cut it."
  • "It's only the name, the contents are a different thing, right? I'm not going."
  • "No chance lol, the Twitter name was bought along with the company. Abandoned or not, if you're going to use the trademark name..."
  • "The original owner threw it away, so they've got no grounds to complain."
  • "If the old Twitter management Elon pushed out got involved, it could happen."