History

The Japan Blog Matsuri was founded by Ken Y-N and hosted on WhatJapanThinks.com in February 2007. The topic of the first ever Matsuri was “festivals” and there were only two submissions! Of those two, only one still exists, and that was Videos of the Hounen Matsuri: an amazing fertility festival, contributed by JapanProbe.com.

The Matsuri lasted four editions before fizzling out, only to be later revived by Nick Ramsay in August 2008 as part of JapanSoc.com. Since then, it has been a regular feature on the J-Web, reaching a peak of 34 entries for the “Foreign Food” theme of the February 2009 Matsuri. See #Previous Themes for each subsequent Matsuri.

Upcoming Matsuris

To find out when the next Japan Blog Matsuri is, where it will be hosted and what the topic is, please visit the Japan Blog Matsuri Newsroom.

Article Submission

Everyone is welcome to contribute. The only requirement is that the submitted post is primarily in English. You don’t need to be resident in Japan to take part, and you don’t even need to be the author to submit a story. The submission must just be somehow related to the current theme, and the host need only occasionally blog on Japan matters.

Please read the #Rules and Guidelines before submitting an article.

How to Submit an Article

Matsuri entries should first be posted online. Once posted, the url to the article needs to be sent to the host for that particular Matsuri. Instructions on how to submit an article will be included in the host’s Matsuri Announcement post and usually involves sending the url by email, leaving the url in the comment section of the Announcement post, or submitting it through the Blog Carnival widget which automatically forwards it to the host.

Rules and Guidelines

Rules

Japan Blog Matsuri submissions should abide by the following rules:

• No material that is copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from their rightful owner to post the material;

• No falsehoods or misrepresentations that could be considered harmful;

• No material that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, libelous, threatening, pornographic, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, violate any law, or is otherwise inappropriate;

• No advertisements or solicitations of business;

• No non-English material unless translations are included;

• No off-topic material, i.e. articles unrelated to the announced Matsuri theme;

• No articles which have already appeared in a previous Japan Blog Matsuri;

• No material which insults, belittles, contains profanity or in other negative ways affects those reading it.

• No more than one entry per author for each Matsuri.

The Matsuri host may refuse inclusion of an article in the Matsuri at his or her sole discretion without the need for explanation.

Guidelines

Here are some tips to ensure your Matsuri entry is well received:

• Submit your entry prior to the deadline;
• Recent articles take preference over old blog posts;
• Stay on-topic;
• Link to this Japan Blog Matsuri FAQ page;
• Link to the Matsuri announcement post on the host’s site, and update it later to link to the published Matsuri;
• The above link can be textual or a Japan Blog Matsuri banner;
• Multimedia is acceptable as long as it is embedded within a blog post.
• Remember that readers may be clicking through dozens of entries, so:
  • Include a picture to catch their attention;
  • Use the first paragraph to summarize what the article is about;
  • Don’t make your article excessively long;
  • Thank the host!

Hosting

Hosting the Japan Blog Matsuri can bring record breaking traffic to your website and provide a welcome boost to your readership numbers. If you are interested in hosting the Matsuri on your blog, first check the future hosts tab on the Blog Carnival widget to see the next available month, then contact Nick.

Hosts should choose a theme that is not too narrow. See examples of #Previous Themes for ideas. Broad topics such as “food” or “technology” are preferred to allow bloggers some flexibility.

The Announcement

About a week after the previous month’s Matsuri, the host should post an announcement of the new one on their site with the following:

• A Japan Blog Matsuri banner;
• A link to the previous Matsuri, with thanks to the host;
• A link to this FAQ page;
• The theme of the Matsuri;
• Instructions on how to submit the url of an article (email, contact form, comment section, Blog Carnival widget);
• The deadline for submissions (usually around the 20th of each month, consult with Nick);
• Tag the announcement and all related posts with “jbmatsuri” so they can be found easily.

Once the announcement has been posted, the host is responsible for getting the word out. That includes:

• Posting an announcement to the JapanSoc.org Google group
• Submitting the announcement to JapanSoc and optionally other social bookmarking services, using the tag “jbmatsuri”;

Accepting Entries

For a particularly popular theme, you may be overwhelmed by entries. It’s advisable to read each one as you get them and add them to a draft of the final Matsuri post rather than leaving everything until the last moment. Problogger has some good tips for hosts in the article, Blog Carnivals Are Great, Hosting Them is Better.

Expect spam entries. Some people will submit anything for a free backlink, especially via the Blog carnival widget. Use your own judgment to decide what is relevant and what abides by the #Rules and Guidelines.

Publishing the Matsuri

As with the announcement post, the published Matsuri should include a banner and link to this FAQ page. Again, the post should be tagged with “jbmatsuri” and publicized via the above channels. Please include a link to the next Matsuri’s host site which can be found by clicking “Future Hosts” on the Blog Carnival widget. See #Previous Themes for examples of published Matsuris.

Further suggestions:

• You can include your own Matsuri entry, either on the same blog or elsewhere.
• Keep comments open on the post to encourage feedback.

Previous Themes

Most recent Matsuri first

Related Links

• Japan Blog Matsuri Newsroom – Announcements, updates, discussion and Blog Carnival widget.
• What Japan Thinks: Japan Blog Matsuri – The Original Japan Blog Matsuri and Blog Carnival widget.
• Blog Carnival – Japan Blog Matsuri page.
• Japan Blog Matsuri banners – A few web banners to promote the Matsuri.