Hiding the face online?

[kaoskastle]

I've noticed that in just about every Japanese-made online video I see (just personal videos, like someone playing a song or doing a dance or something) the people within the video are all masked or otherwise obscuring their faces. What exactly is it that would make just about all of Japan, but none of any other countries I know of, do this? I'm not criticizing or anything, just curious as to what sparked this phenomenon.

[QuackingShoe]

I see that in personal videos all the time, regardless of origin. But it's a way of maintaining a shred of privacy, which I SUPPOSE is stereotypically more important to Japanese, whereas in the good ol' US of A we're all bloody egomaniacs who would jump out naked in front of a camera as long as it meant people would see us.
So there's that.
But no, really, that's fairly common in general, particularly in any instrument or dancing demonstration videos, where your face really isn't the point. It's possible you just watch more Japanese videos than others.

[Belton]

Sense of privacy, fear of Internet, an ability to separate real life and net presence. ..
You have no control over *anything* you post to the net.

It's a feature of mixi that Japanese avatars tend to be cartoon characters or pop idols etc. but foreigners tend to use their own portrait photo. Photos posted tend not to have people, or the people will have black bars over their faces. There is a possibility they are saving peoples embarrassment as well.

Another possibility is fashion. Once a number of people do it it becomes the standard way to post photos.

But whatever the reasons, it is a feature of Japanese web2.0