Recording the history of the Japanese Wikipedia community on Wikipedia

The Japanese Wikipedia was launched on May 20th of the same year that Wikipedia was born on January 15th, 2001. It has continued to develop since then, and as of January 1st, 2026, it contains approximately 1.48 million articles. The history of the Japanese Wikipedia is summarized in a Wikipedia article titled “Japanese Wikipedia.” However, while the article describes the characteristics, history, and challenges of the Japanese Wikipedia, it does not clearly describe the history of the community that has been responsible for its activities. In other words, just reading this article does not give a clear picture of the people who are responsible for the Japanese Wikipedia.

Last year, when I held an event called “Wikimedia World in Library Fair 2025,” I planned to display a Wikimedia chronology at my exhibition booth. However, since I only started editing Wikipedia in 2016, I knew very little about what happened before that. Therefore, I sought out and interviewed people who had been active since the Japanese Wikipedia was launched, and discovered that a wide variety of initiatives had been undertaken.

What surprised me most was the cooperation of many Wikipedians from the early stages of the Japanese version’s launch, including holding article-writing contests to improve its quality. I also learned that several Japanese people participated in Wikimania, which began in 2005, and interacted with Wikipedians overseas. Furthermore, around 2010, various groups were established across the country, starting Wikipedia Town editathons and holding anniversary events every five years. Over the past 25 years, various frictions and problems have arisen, but the path of overcoming them is gradually becoming clear. While various groups have risen and fallen, new groups have also been formed recently. Against this backdrop, the Wikimedians of Japan User Group was finally born on October 14, 2023, as the first officially recognized user group by the Wikimedia Foundation.

I compiled the “Wikimedia Chronology 2025 Edition” by checking each source of information on these matters. I displayed this at the booth of the event, distributed it in print, and uploaded it to Wikimedia Commons. To share the information I discovered more widely, I have now created a section called “Japanese Community Activities” in the “Japanese Wikipedia” article on Wikipedia, and have included a summary of the chronology’s contents in the text.

While writing Wikipedia articles is an independent endeavor for each individual Wikipedian, it is the volunteer community around the world that has nurtured the Wikipedia ecosystem for 25 years. The community itself has been nurtured over the course of 25 years, and the Japanese Wikipedia was created with the cooperation of countless Wikipedians even before the user group was established. I have now been able to visualize that cooperation in Wikipedia articles. I hope to continue learning from other communities overseas and work together to further develop this cooperation.