2channel (２ちゃんねる, Nichanneru), or 2ch, is a large Japanese bulletin board, founded by Hiroyuki Nishimura on May 30, 1999.¹⁾ However, Jim Watkins (NTTEC) seized the website on February 19, 2014,²⁾³⁾ then renamed it to 5channel (５ちゃんねる, Gochanneru) in 2017.⁴⁾

“Many people who write on [2channel] are stupid. They cannot change the world by writing about it. If they really want to have an impact, there are other things they could be doing.”
– Hiroyuki Nishimura⁵⁾

In the past, 2channel was an 'influential' website on the Japanese internet, but its relevance has waned after the rise of social networking (e.g. Twitter). While its 1,000+ boards seem intimidating, most of their activities simply occur in the fast-paced 'live' and 'news' boards. Of course, the website is mostly text-based, so you will have to manually sift though discussions, kopipe, links (without the 'h'), spam, and ASCII art.

However, we shouldn't overlook how anonymity had been a core aspect of 2channel in a very formal society, allowing some of Japan's worst aspects to be on full public display. Most responsible observers warn that 2channel has a 'conservative' or 'nationalist' tendency in the form of defamation, fake news, hate speech, etc. The mismanagement from NTTEC is also worth noting.

“It's a supplement to Amezou. I wanted to make the boards that Amezou didn't have.”
– Hiroyuki Nishimura⁶⁾

On May 30, 1999, Nishimura sets up 2channel at “bohe.virtualave.net” with /lobby/ at its core, claiming it had intended to be a 'supplementary' website to Amezou⁷⁾ as it struggled to keep up with traffic. As the users discussed topics like the Toshiba Complainer case, they added the capcode and sage before Amezou died by the end of the year, then some publicity came with the Nishi-Tetsu bus hijacking in 2000.⁸⁾⁹⁾

By this point, some Ayashii World users retaliated after finding out that Nishimura sped up Amezou's death,¹⁰⁾ gifting them the derogatory nickname, 'tantubo' (痰壺, lit. “spittoon”), which became the front page 'jar'.¹¹⁾ In 2001, the tripcode was added, /news/ became the new core, some existential scare forced Shitaraba to be split while Futaba Channel surfaced,¹²⁾ then Kazuhiko Nishi made a fool of himself.

The website eventually started logging IPs by 2003, beginning their user-facing anonymity. Then on June 18, 2004, /news4vip/ grew from a failed /news/ experiment, becoming the new core.¹³⁾¹⁴⁾ On May 18, 2005, the Free Use Mark was adopted,¹⁵⁾ but the subsequent rise of affiliate-funded 'matome' blogs led to pushback, so a /poverty/ board was set up on December 28, 2007 to deter third-party monetization.¹⁶⁾¹⁷⁾

“That's why I had numerous overseas business trips about the transfer of 2channel.”
– Hiroyuki Nishimura¹⁸⁾

On January 2, 2009, Nishimura claimed that a Singapore-based dummy corporation, 'Packet Monster', now owned 2channel.^19)20)21) In 2010, there was a massive South Korean DDoS attack that did damage to NTTEC's servers on March 1, 2010,²²⁾²³⁾ then /livebase/ users took up refuge in /livejupiter/ on May 13, 2010 for the rest of the NPB season, thus making /livejupiter/ the new core.

In 2012, a lawyer named Takahiro Karasawa becomes a laughingstock, then Nishimura's dummy corporation scheme falls apart on April 26, 2012,²⁴⁾²⁵⁾ making him liable for the negligence fines²⁶⁾ and tax audit.²⁷⁾²⁸⁾ During this, Nishimura entrusted 2channel with NTTEC,²⁹⁾ but this was a critical mistake as their NTTEC-ran³⁰⁾ '2ch Viewer' (●) service was hacked on August 23, 2013^31)32)33)34) and he refused to resume it.³⁵⁾

As a consequence, Watkins (NTTEC) then seized 2channel on February 10, 2014, citing slander and unpaid bills,³⁶⁾ then introduced a 'Ronin' (浪人) service. Shortly after, they approached the 'matome' problem and LDP conspiracies³⁷⁾³⁸⁾ by canceling their Free Use Mark for a global reprinting ban. Nishimura would try to retaliate from the inside,³⁹⁾⁴⁰⁾ but later made '2ch.sc',⁴¹⁾⁴²⁾ then others made Open2channel.

“I have talked with [Karasawa], and we have exchanged letters. He is competent.”
– Jim Watkins⁴³⁾

Due to Nishimura's attempts at sabotage, the API was changed on February 16, 2015, which controversially forced any dedicated browser developer to de-anonymize themselves,⁴⁴⁾⁴⁵⁾ then Nishimura buys 4chan on September 21, 2015^46)47)48) and hints at legal action.⁴⁹⁾⁵⁰⁾ This legal feud, where Karasawa defends Watkins, was messy. Watkins was found guilty,⁵¹⁾⁵²⁾ but it was overturned,^53)54)55) then it sorta stopped.⁵⁶⁾

Most of the feud occurred behind closed doors,⁵⁷⁾⁵⁸⁾ but Nishimura did trademark '2channel' which forced Watkins to rename the website to 5channel at “5ch.net” on September 30, 2016⁵⁹⁾ and trademark the new name.⁶⁰⁾ Meanwhile, 2channel was going through a very obvious decline,⁶¹⁾ and the staff would receive their fair share of criticism, then some foreign IPs were temporarily blocked.⁶²⁾⁶³⁾

In 2020, former NTTEC employee and 8chan founder Fredrick Brennan claimed Watkins had been selling user data.⁶⁴⁾⁶⁵⁾ In 2022, /livejupiter/'s servers failed and the migration to /livegalileo/ became permanent. In 2023, “Jane Inc.” drops 2channel and launches Talk.jp on July 10, 2023⁶⁶⁾ as the advertising fees were never adjusted for the recession,⁶⁷⁾ so 2channel simply replaces 'Ronin' with 'UPLIFT' on August 30, 2023.⁶⁸⁾

On March 5, 2026, the domain registrar Epik terminates '5ch.net' and 'bbspink.com' for failing to deal with illegal activities (e.g. animal cruelty),⁶⁹⁾ relocating to “5ch.io” in the meantime.⁷⁰⁾

A '2channel dedicated browser' (2ch専用(せんよう)ブラウザ, nichanneru senyou burauza) is a type of site-specific browser that was popularized after the August Crisis of 2001 since users were led to believe that these can potentially put less strain on the servers by saving the thread data locally, meaning that they only need to fetch the latest posts from the API upon revisiting an old thread, instead of reloading the entire thread again.

Some browsers may also have extra features, comparable to a browser extension or userscript, though developers will have to de-anonymize themselves, plus there's the whole 'paid service' compatibility thing.⁷¹⁾ Without the browser, accessing 'too many' threads in a short amount of time could get your IP address blocked for about two hours, or the server will spit out an error like “hito oosugi” (人大杉).⁷²⁾

• Their slogan is “from hacking to tonight's side dish”⁷³⁾ (「ハッキング」から「今晩のおかず」まで).
• If you refuse to use a dedicated browser to browse old threads but don't want to get blocked, try sifting through off-site archives like “logsoku.com” or “mimizun.com” for old threads.
• Open2channel users came up with a few nicknames for 2channel like 'Old 2channel' (旧2ちゃんねる), '9ch',⁷⁴⁾ 'Jimchannel' (Jimちゃんねる), 'Jimbabwe' (Jimバブエ),⁷⁵⁾ and 'RiCh' (りch).⁷⁶⁾

• 2ch Syndrome
• h Removal
• List of 2ch Boards - For articles on individual boards, please see the front page instead.

• 5channel - The front page of 5channel.
  • 5channel's Board List - Sidebar Only / Full Screen (Alternate View)
  • 5channel Wiki (2channel Wiki)
  • @5chan_nel → @5channel_net on Twitter - The official Twitter account.
• 2channel Server Breakdown
• 2channel News Navigator - This page is designed for people who use plus boards like /newsplus/.
• 2channel on Niconico Encyclopedia
• 2channel on Pixiv Encyclopedia

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