The words “social network” bring to mind computers, college and high school students, job seekers, and probably a few company names like Facebook or MySpace. At least, to Western minds.

A recent article from MSNBC points out that social networks, and the Internet in general, are viewed much differently in Japan than in Western societies. For a long time we thought that the animal videos coming out of Japan were just a fluke, but it turns out they’re indicative of the culture on a larger scale:

YouTube is wildly successful here, but rare is the user who follows the site’s enticement to “Broadcast Yourself.” Posting pet videos is far more popular, and has bred a generation of animal celebrities.

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“There is the sense that, `My face just isn’t that interesting, or I’m not attractive — there is nothing special about me to show people,’” says Tetsuya Shibui, a writer who has long followed the Internet in Japan.

Indeed, the Japanese virtual world has turned out just like the real one.

People rarely give their first names to those they don’t know well. Spontaneous exchanges are uncommon even on the tightly packed trains and streets of Tokyo. TV news shows often blur the faces of those caught in background footage and photos to protect their privacy.

Of course, this is in great contrast to the United States, where we’re entitled to at least 15 minutes of fame during our lifetime, come hell or high water. One could argue that this tendency for exhibitionism has led to the success of social networks in the United States and Europe, and indeed, Japan’s notoriety for privacy has been cited as a reason that social networks don’t work the same way in that country:

The penchant for invisibility has made it hard for Western social networks to establish themselves. Belated forays into the Japanese market by Facebook Inc. and News Corp.’s MySpace, for instance, have failed to generate much of a buzz.

Google Inc., which operates YouTube, has tried to convince the Japanese to loosen up, running events in Tokyo in which girls in miniskirts roam the streets with giant picture frames and video cameras, soliciting pedestrians to frame themselves and record a clip for the site.

But it has since eased back on such efforts. YouTube’s latest campaign in Japan involves people uploading pictures of their pets.

“We can’t change the mindset of Japanese people,” says Tomoe Makino, in charge of partner development at YouTube’s Japan site. “It’s the uniqueness of Japanese culture — anonymous works in Japan.”