Is Japanese PM Hatoyama a 2-channeler?

2-ch is easily the most controversial site on the Japanese net. Within the anonymous bulletin board, 2-ch users are able to deftly weave between free speech and slander without much chance of reprisal. The good side: 2-ch lets us hear what Japanese web users are really thinking, but are too afraid to say publicly. The bad side: most of the time, their secret thoughts are not so pretty.

So due to the Wild West-meets-'collective id' atmosphere of 2-ch, few public officials want to go on the record as being users. According to Get News, however, our new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has admitted that he loves 2-ch. In his Yahoo! Japan chat event profile, Hatoyama wrote that his favorite websites are CNN (thanks!), the official NFL site, 2-ch, and the official Tokyo Giants homepage.

Hatoyama, however, is not the first prime minister to proudly boast of being a '2-channeler.' Former PM Taro Aso said in 2007 that he actually posted text to the BBS once in a while.

The DPJ leader now has only way to one-up Aso in terms of net savvy: Produce a giant ASCII art portrait of the First Family.