Toxic image board 4chan has managed to stay online for the past seven yearsāamid boycotts and advertiser flight, after being implicated in several mass shootings, even as it was identified as a source of the conspiracy theories that inspired the January 6 insurrectionāthanks, in part, to a $2.4 million investment from a major Japanese toy company.
A partnership agreement, obtained exclusively by WIRED, shows not only how current site owner Hiroyuki Nishimura acquired the far-right message board but also how Japanese industry helped finance the deal.
The text of the deal shows that Nishimura invested $800,000 of his own money, plus $4.8 million from his companyāusing cash from a major Japanese telecommunications company. But the most surprising part of the deal came from Good Smile Company, which acquired a 30 percent share in 4chan for its $2.4 million investment.
This contract was filed by 4chan to investigators with the New York Attorney Generalās office, as part of that agencyās now-closed investigation into the May 2022 mass shooting in Buffalo, New York. WIRED obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request.
These documents for the first time confirm the opaque corporate partnership that has run 4chan since its 2015 acquisition, just as scrutiny increases on the money behind the long-running website.
