Japan

There were 95,979,000 internet users in Japan (representing 75.5% of the population) in December 2009, according to Internet World Stats. This was up by 103.9% since 2000. (Internet World Stats, April 2010)

95.7 million people will use the internet in Japan by 2013, according to eMarketer. This would be up from 92.3 million in 2009.

Internet users in Japan 2008-2013:
- 2008: 90.7 million
- 2009: 92.3 million
- 2010: 93.4 million
- 2011: 94.2 million
- 2012: 95.0 million
- 2013: 95.7 million

(eMarketer, May 2009)

84.4% of adult internet users in Japan have felt at least once that the internet is "scary", according to Marsh Research. The degree to which they were frightened varied, with 11.7% saying the internet was really scary, and 72.7% saying it was only somewhat scary.

Frightening online experiences included multiple pop-ups coming at once, contraction of a computer virus, getting bills from unknown purchases, identity theft and seeing scary pictures or videos.

Familiarity is not bringing any comfort, either. More than 60% of respondents said the internet was as scary as it was last year and 24% said that it was even scarier.

That's not stopping the Japanese from going online, however. eMarketer estimates that 92 million people in Japan will use the internet at least monthly in 2009, representing nearly 73% of the population. (eMarketer, April 2009)

Digital Media

Nearly 74% of Japan's online population (or more than 45.7 million people) visited a site in the Entertainment category in February 2009, according to comScore. Japanese internet users spent nearly 15% of their total time online during the month on these sites, making the Entertainment category one of the most popular and engaging content categories. 

Entertainment sites, which include online video, TV and music destinations, continue to be among the most popular sites on the Web, benefiting from rapidly evolving technologies that have greatly improved the end-user experience.

YouTube.com had the largest audience with 21.7 million visitors, representing a reach of 35%. Other heavily trafficked entertainment properties included Sony Online (15.2 million visitors), iTunes Software Application (12.1 million visitors), Nicovideo.jp (11.2 million visitors) and Fuji Television Network (7.5 million visitors). (comScore, April 2009) 

Search Engines and Searches

6.8 billion searches were conducted in Japan in January 2009, representing a 9% increase versus a year ago and the highest monthly search volume on record, according to comScore. 2008 was another year of very solid growth in the search market in Japan, according to eMarketer. Home to the third largest Internet population in the world, Japan represents a valuable market for search engines. It is also one of the more competitive search markets, with two large companies, Yahoo! and Google, each controlling a significant share of the market.

Yahoo! Sites led the search ranking in Japan with 3.5 billion searches in January 2009, up 13% from the previous year, followed by Google Sites with 2.6 billion searches (+5%) and Rakuten Inc. with 153 million searches (+38%). Excite Japan had the strongest growth of any search property in the top ten, growing 362% versus year ago to 52 million searches.

Top search properties in Japan by search query volume, January 2009 (Total Japan internet audience - Age 15+, Home & work locations):
- Total internet: 6,795,000,000 (+9%)
- Yahoo! Sites: 3,489,000,000 (+13%)
- Google Sites: 2,596,000,000 (+5%)
- Rakuten Inc.: 153,000,000 (+38%)
- Microsoft Sites: 113,000,000 (-5%)
- NTT Group: 103,000,000 (+11%)
- Amazon Sites: 69,000,000 (-14%)
- Excite Japan: 52,000,000 (+362%)
- NEC Corporation: 44,000,000 (-25%)
- MIXI, Inc.: 23,000,000 (-42%)
- Nifty Corporation: 22,000,000 (+14%

In January 2009, searchers in Japan conducted an average of 100 searches per searcher during the month. Yahoo! Sites captured 51% of all search queries, followed by Google Sites with 38% and Rakuten Inc. with 2%.

Yahoo! Sites had the highest frequency of searches per searcher at 62, followed by Google Sites at 55 searches per searcher. Other search properties in the top ten with relatively high search engagement included NEC Corporation (24 searches per searcher), Excite Japan (20 searches per searcher), and Nifty Corporation (13 searches per searcher). (comScore, March 2009)

70% of the members of a goo Research monitor panel replied that they had ever clicked on contextual search ads.

Internet users in Japan who have ever clicked on a contextual ad in search results, February 2009 (as a % of respondents):
- Yes: 70.0%
- No: 19.6%
- Don't know if I have: 7.6%
- Didn't know there were ads there: 2.8%

That's good news for advertisers in Japan, especially for e-tailers. Online shopping was the second-most-popular online activity in the country, trailing only e-mail, according to Marsh Research.

Online activities of internet users in Japan, April-May 2008 (as a % of respondents):
- Webmail: 88.0%
- Online shopping: 78.0%
- Video delivery service: 48.7%
- Internet auction: 44.7%
- Blogs: 31.7%
- Music download: 25.0%
- Social networking sites: 23.7%
- Instant messenger: 16.7%
- Online gaming: 15.7%
- Homepage creation: 15.3%
- Bulleting boards: 14.0%
- VoIP: 8.0%
- File-sharing: 5.0%
- Other: 11.7%

However, when asked whether or not contextual ads were useful, searchers in Japan were ambivalent. Only 1% of them answered "very useful". On the other hand, only 4.5% said they would rather not have contextual ads.

Attitudes of internet users in Japan towards contextual ads in search results, February 2009 (as a % of respondents):
- Very useful: 1.0%
- Useful: 14.3%
- Useful to some degree: 46.6%
- Don't care if they are there or not: 33.6%
- Would rather not have them: 4.5%

When asked if they had clicked on an ad to purchase goods or services online, 80% of the respondents answered no. One in seven said they had made a purchase through a search click. (eMarketer, March 2009) 

There were 50,048,857 active home internet users in Japan in June 2009, according to Nielsen Online. This was up by 0.68% compared to the previous month. (ClickZ, August 2009)

For many years the mobile market in Japan has served the rest of the world as a model of the future of mobile development. If that holds true, expect more mobile users online. Mobile internet in Japan reached nearly 83% penetration among mobile phone users, according to the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. A total of 75.1 million users in Japan accessed the internet via mobile phones in 2008.

One of the most popular mobile phone activities for young adults in Japan was e-mail, with 72% of users ages 8 to 24 reading and answering e-mails on the go. Japan's culture of connectivity pushed penetration far above the 13% average for Asia-Pacific, according to a Synovate study sponsored by Microsoft Advertising, MTV and Yahoo!. The level reached only 8% in both Hong Kong and Singapore.

Mobile phone activities of young adult mobile phone users in selected countries in Asia-Pacific, Q4, 2008 (% of respondents):
- Surfing the internet: 9% in Hong Kong / 21% in Japan / 11% in Singapore / 14% in Asia-Pacific
- Sending/receiving e-mail: 8% HK / 72% J / 8% S / 13% A-P 

86% of mobile phone users in Japan check their e-mail every day, but they are highly sensitive to spam, according to a survey by Point On Research. Mobile spam was seen as unsettling by more than 85% of respondents surveyed by goo Research. The same survey found that 33% of those users received at least one piece of spam in their mobile e-mail each day. (eMarketer, June 2009)