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[Aquin]

I usually find them through members here (like Siiseli), but I'm wondering just where the source might be.  I'm curious if there are any notable blogs or Japanese indie websites particularly representative of the scene (much like TIGS and indiegames.com are well-known for us over here.)

It'd be nice to keep on top of that area of gaming. 

[Jolli]

how u find game ?

[Jolli]

i translated hobby to japanese then googled that + game and i got this
http://game-shumi.com/

now you tell me if those are games or not cos i cant read

[Aquin]

I was thinking the more obscure low-key stuff like Nanosmile or Ganbare Natsuki-san or Bubble or...well you know.  I'm not too interested in the highly-polished stuff, since that comes to my attention already. I used to have a site for it, but it sorta went and disappeared on me.

[Jolli]

email 

[BlueSweatshirt]

Honestly, I don't think that's such a bad idea.
(except you'd have one hell of a time conversing with him if you don't know Japanese.)

[TheDustin]

While scouring the bowels of the internet to find games to review I found the Japanese equivalent of Kongregate:

http://mogera.jp/

They've got some pretty cool Flash stuff hidden in there, you just have to browse around. If anybody knows of the Japanese equivalent of TIGsource stop holding out on us! 

[Tom Sennett]

I took three semesters of Japanese but forgot all of it.

I've been meaning to bring this up, though. The Japanese mainstream is already batshit crazy, so there has to be some really awesome stuff on the fringe. Someone needs to bridge the gap between us Western folk and our friends in the East.

I think it would be awesome to make half a game, send it to a Japanese developer who doesn't speak English, and have them finish it. Or vice versa. Somebody get on this.

[Ushi-kun]

Usually the best way to find about Japanese games (from the west),
like you already mentioned, is by other people (forums, blogs, etc).

Probably your best bet is searching "同人ゲーム" or something similar.
(You'll probably bump into a lot of 18+ software as well)

I would guess a lot of hobby groups are hiding in 2-chan or similar Japanese forums,
or just using their own personal blogs.

I think also certain game magazine websites feature some free (indie) games,
if you want to check those as well.

[raiten]

Here's a few twitter lists

http://twitter.com/akno/game-creators
http://twitter.com/cre_g/game-creaters
http://twitter.com/skipmore/game-creator
http://twitter.com/hiz_/gamedev
http://twitter.com/babara/flash-game-creators

Twicco webgames lists alot of interesting web games (not exclusively Japanese) -> http://twitter.com/twicco_webgames

A website with interviews with Japanese flash game developers (one in English, with nekogames) from the same guy who does twicco webgames -> http://0stage.jp/

[Inzaniak]

Use the random indie games finder: http://www.charliesgames.com/tests/index.html

[Aquin]

Thanks for the info guys! 

[alspal]

I'm pretty sure indie games Japan equivalent is 'doujin games'.

[deathtotheweird]

Indie Games weblog usually posts about some of the best japanese indie games such as Journey to the Center of the Earth, Rockman 7 FC and more recently: http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/11/freeware_game_pick_nezumiman_f.html

[Labbed]

http://www.vector.co.jp/
Lots of Japanese indie games. Quite hard to navigate but you can find a lot of games there.
Games here!
Google translate here!

[magnum_opus]

http://freegamejp.com/
http://freegame.on.arena.ne.jp/
http://www.freem.ne.jp/

there's a couple freeware sites to get you started. Mouse over links and use the status bar to figure out where the links go, most url's are in english.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

generally japanese indie games are more popular than western indie games so i think they're easier to find / come across randomly. for instance, cave story, la mulana, the touhou series, yume nikki, etc. completely overshadow things like iji, aquaria, noutu love 2, cactus's games, etc. in terms of fame

[supershigi]

I was also going to recommend http://mogera.jp/ and for those interested in rpgs, there are a number of indie devs who hang out at the http://www.tekepon.net/fsm/ community.  A lot of Japanese indie devs hang out at American sites though.

[J. R. Hill]

Browse 2chan
 
LIKE A BOSS

[Ushi-kun]

Not exactly a site for finding Japanese indie games..
but I find this site rather useful for  reading japanese websites:

http://www.rikai.com/perl/Home.pl

Basically, you can paste text into it and mouseover words to see definitions,
readings, etc..

There's a firefox plugin for the tool as well.