What Was 2channel? Hiroyuki Nishimura's Anonymous Board and Its Rename to 5channel

2channel (2ちゃんねる, "2ch") is the Japanese anonymous bulletin board that Hiroyuki Nishimura opened in 1999. If the question is when it started, the answer is 1999, and the opening date usually given is 30 May 1999 (the English Wikipedia lists that date; a TV Tokyo programme write-up says only that he opened it in 1999, at the age of 22). Boards arranged by topic let anyone post without giving a name, and out of them came the novel, film and TV drama Densha Otoko and the file-sharing program Winny. On 1 October 2017 the board changed its name and domain to 5channel (5ch.net); the 2channel name lives on at a separate board, 2ch.sc, run by Nishimura.

How an anonymous board grew

According to the TV Tokyo write-up, Nishimura expected 2channel to catch on because he thought people would get hooked on communicating with one another in groups. The same piece carries his account that it began as a gathering place for hard-core internet users and passed 10 million page accesses within six months.

The English Wikipedia says Nishimura advertised 2channel in May 1999 in a post on Amezou, an earlier anonymous board (this point rests on Wikipedia alone).

Densha Otoko and Winny

Posts on 2channel repeatedly escaped the board. Eiga.com's listing for the film Densha Otoko describes its source as Hitori Nakano's book of the same name, based on posts on the internet bulletin board 2channel. Shinchosha's description tells the story of a young man who steps in when a drunk harasses a woman on a train, then turns to the single people gathered on an online board for advice on reaching out to her; the hardback came out on 22 October 2004. The film opened on 4 June 2005. An ITmedia article from December 2005 says that Densha Otoko, born from 2channel posts, became a book, a film and a twelve-episode TV drama, each a solid hit. In the TV Tokyo write-up Nishimura says the book sold more than 1.05 million copies (the figure is his own account on the programme).

The other export was technology. Winny, the file-sharing program released in 2002 by Isamu Kaneko, a research associate at the University of Tokyo, came out of 2channel, where its developer was known as "47-shi". That story, and the seven-year trial that followed, is told in the Winny article.

Lawsuits over posts

As administrator, Nishimura was sued for leaving defamatory posts up. According to the TV Tokyo write-up, he recalled days on which he appeared in three cases at the Tokyo District Court, and explained that most suits asked for deletion and damages, and that because posts stayed up after deletion requests he often lost and was ordered to pay. Online he is said to have dodged billions of yen in damages; on the programme he said he had never received a judgment ordering him to pay billions, and explained that the large totals came from late-payment charges piling up on small awards. These are his own statements on the programme, not figures checked against court records.

Transfer, conflict and a new name

According to J-CAST, Nishimura announced on his blog on 2 January 2009 that the transfer of 2channel was complete. The registrant of the 2ch.net domain had become PACKET MONSTER INC., which the article said appeared to be based in Singapore. Nishimura's post gave no reason for the transfer.

A 2017 Nikkei article summarised what came next. In 2014 a company called N.T. Technology named Jim Watkins as administrator, and the site came to be run by a company called Race Queen. There appeared to be a dispute among those involved over whether Nishimura's transfer to the Singapore company had been nominal or real. According to KAI-YOU, the conflict between Watkins and Nishimura became public in 2014; Nishimura issued a statement saying 2channel had been hijacked and launched 2ch.sc, with himself as administrator.

The dispute also went through the international domain-name procedure. According to the decision of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, Nishimura filed a complaint against Jim Watkins and Race Queen, Inc. seeking the transfer of 2ch.net. The panel accepted his Japanese registration for the 2CH trademark, granted on 22 April 2016, as a basis for rights, but denied the complaint on 28 July 2016 because he had not shown that the respondent lacked rights or legitimate interests in the domain.

On 1 October 2017 2ch.net changed its name and domain to 5channel (5ch.net). According to KAI-YOU, the operators said the change was to deal with a rights dispute with the former administrator, Nishimura, who had obtained the trademarks for 2ch and 2channel. According to Nikkei, the board's front page said Loki Technology had taken over management from Race Queen and changed the name at the same time.

The 2026 domain suspension

According to AUTOMATON, 5channel's administrator Watkins reported on 5 March 2026 that the domains 5ch.net and bbspink.com, used by the affiliated board BBSPINK, had been permanently suspended. The suspension was carried out by the registrar Epik, and Watkins said the problem was that animal-abuse content had been found to violate Epik's terms of service. KAI-YOU reported the same day that the sites had been temporarily shut after losing their domains, noting that the reason was inferred from posts by Watkins and others and not confirmed. The board continues on the substitute domain 5ch.io.

Lineage

2channel was the opposite of services built on real names and profiles such as Facebook or Japan's own mixi: its premise was that you did not give your name. The TV Tokyo write-up also covers how Nishimura opened Niconico, which layers comments over video, in 2006. For the wider story, see the internet and web timeline.