Second Life Japan - Dead?

I completely disagree that SL Japan is dead. After all, it has only been 5 months since SL Japan was released. Here is the critical expose by blogger shi3z as translated by Chris Salzberg;

Second Life in Japan is virtually dead. While three-dimensional environments such as “meet me” [ja] and Hatena World have seen their popularity rise, the most famous virtual environment in the world has seen its virtual space steadily depopulate in Japan. When a reporter from J-Cast went to check out [ja] some of the Second Life “virtual shops” and “virtual companies” earlier this month, the buildings were apparently still there but the inhabitants were nowhere to be found.

In his December 24th post entitled “A few things one should learn from the failure of Second Life,” blogger shi3z reviews the reasons why Second Life failed to catch on in Japan:

半年くらい前、国内でのセカンドライフは完全にバブル状態だったのですが、誰もがこれがバブルだと認識しつつ敢えて踊らされる側に回った、というのがとても印象的でした。知人のセカンドライフビジネス関係者で本気でセカンドライフをやっていこうとしているのは1割もいませんでしたし、みんな心のどこかで「まあこんなの今だけだし」と思っていた点は否めません。

About a half a year ago, Second Life in Japan was in a complete bubble state, but what was really striking was that everyone chose to be swayed by the trend even while they recognized that it was a bubble. Of the acquaintances I have who were involved in Second Life, not even 10 percent were serious about it, and it can't be denied that everyone, in their heart, was thinking: “This is not going to last.” http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/12/27/japan-learning-from-the-failure-of-second-life/

see: http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/12/17/second-life-in-japan-depopulating-j-cast/