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The new localized version of Twitter in Japanese has been launched, as reported by Joi Ito, Asiajin, and the Polar Bear Blog. The Japanese version, unlike the current English one, includes advertisements, and there is a plan to eventually export these ads back to the English version.
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I feel Twitter users in Japan don’t entirely welcome the Japanese version. It is not only due to ads; if you use Firefox or Firefox-based browser (for example, Netscape and Flock), you can easily block them with Adblock extension. In my view, many of Japanese users have a self-consciousness that they are geeks. For them English user interface may have a symbolic meaning: we are different from ordinary Internet users in Japan. Some people are changing language setting of their browsers, so that they could get English UI.
Some users are also concerned about change of Twitter into mixi-like social networking site; they dislike unpleasant communications peculiar to this Japanese SNS. In general, Japanese users of Twitter are nervous of being followed and removed by others. If non-geek users increased in the Twitter community in Japan, following others’ tweets may become no fun ― “Don’t remove me without notice!”