Souvenir... souvenir... :o) In fact I don't remember well, but I know Brion was very enthusiastic starting this Wikipedia. Ask him the reason, but the fact he read/write some Japanese is surely a point. Here is what I can recall (it is certainly not the reality, so please correct if needed): * Brion starts a first version (UseMod?) of Japanese Wikipedia around September 2002. I remember some non-Japanese people came there to write few stubs/lists * In November 2002, Brion starts a new version (Phase3?). At this time the Japanese Wikipedia was almost sleeping and I was the only user available for testing the new server (it's why I'm registered as user number 2. Number 1 is of course Brion). The previous version database was very small (perhaps few dozen articles) so the content was not converted to the new server and old one staid alive for a wile to let us copy pages from old server to the new one. It's why you can't found the vestiges of the first edits on the current database. Perhaps Brion is keeping a backup of the old version!? * After, I think some non-Japanese people came back there to make some edits and we started to translate the interface in Japanese. Personally, I advertised Wikipedia around me (I'm in Japan) and tried to make people contribute to it, but as far as I know, it was unsuccessful. * The 19^th of December, Brion let me a message on my talk page to inform me that someone was creating (real) articles on Japanese Wikipedia! (« Peut-être t'interesse; il y a quelqu'un sur ja.wiki ! --Brion 08:46 déc 19, 2002 (CET) »). I think it was Hijiri. Few weeks later (January 2003?), Tomos arrived at ja.wiki. They know the continuation ;o) Andre Engels wrote : I really don't merit the title of "the one who started the Japanese Wikipedia". If you want to award someone, you must elect Brion. Nothing would have been possible without his will to start and help the non-English Wikipedias. Meanwhile, if you need someone for an interview in Japan, I'm of course available :o) Finally, what the firsts done is really less important than the great job Japanese wikipedians done since;o) Omedeto ! Aoineko