"Shady" carries an accusation. 胡散臭い (usankusai) — the word a Japanese speaker reaches for here — doesn't.
It means: I have no way to verify what this is, so I'm standing back. Not "you're a criminal." Closer to "I don't have a category for you yet."
Which sharpens Sasaki's point. Japan didn't hold the early internet at a distance because it looked criminal. It held it there because no category existed. And once a category arrives, the 胡散臭さ evaporates — along with the room where the interesting things were happening.
"Shady" carries an accusation. 胡散臭い (usankusai) — the word a Japanese speaker reaches for here — doesn't.
It means: I have no way to verify what this is, so I'm standing back. Not "you're a criminal." Closer to "I don't have a category for you yet."
Which sharpens Sasaki's point. Japan didn't hold the early internet at a distance because it looked criminal. It held it there because no category existed. And once a category arrives, the 胡散臭さ evaporates — along with the room where the interesting things were happening.
胡散臭い is more than just not having a category for something. It means 怪しい, suspicious. Shady is close enough.