Japanese Internet users in 1999

The information in this report is from the latest online Internet resources available about Japanese Internet users. This report will help you make an efficient and effective marketing strategies for your business by understanding who the users are, how they use the Internet, and what they buy online.

First of all, how many Internet users are there in Japan now? According to Nikkei Market Access (http://www3.nikkeibp.co.jp/MA/), the number of active Japanese Internet users is 12,600,000 in March 1999. The number of people who have tried Internet is 19,500,000. This number is relatively low compared to other countries. Many more Chinese people get online than Japanese people. It is widely said that this is due to the high cost of the phone line access in Japan. Not like americans, Japanese people have to pay for the time they are on the net on top of the basic phone service charge. That's probably why E-zines are very popular in Japan - people can read the e-zine sent to their e-mail address offline.

Career Field

The following are some statistics about Japanese Internet users to help us see exactly who is online.

Career Field	Survey in Sep 98	Survey in Jan99
Executive	2.2%	2.2%
Manager	6.7%	7.3%
Teacher	3.2%	3.4%
Computer technician	14.4%	11.7%
Other technician	14.9%	15.2%
Customer service	2.2%	2.7%
Administrative	14.9%	16.9%
Sales/marketing	8.4%	8.1%
Trade	0.2%	0.2%
Secondary school student	16.2%	16.8%
High school student	3.1%	2.9%
Elementary/Junior high school student	0.8%	1.0%
Housewife	2.2%	3.0%
Home business owner	3.3%	3.7%
unemployed	1.5%	1.1%
Retired	0.1%	0.2%
Others	4.9%	3.4%
Total	(21,139)100%	(24,110)100%

Yahoo! Japan http://www.yahoo.co.jp/docs/result/result6/

Annual Income

Yahoo! Japan states that because of the increase of female and young Internet users, the average annual income of the Japanese Internet users has decreased. It is important to note that it is the young Japanese female who often has the greatest amount of disposable income, and that it is housewife who has a great buying power on shopping.

Annual Income ($1=120 yen)	Survey in Jan 99
$25,000	5,111	21.1%
$25,000 - $42,000	6,759	28.1%
$42,000 - $58,300	4,502	18.7%
$58,300 - $83,300	2,735	11.3%
$83,300 - $166,600	935	3.9%
$166,600 -	82	0.3%
No income	3,986	16.6%
Total	24,110	100%

Yahoo! Japan http://www.yahoo.co.jp/docs/result/result6/

Marriage Status

Yahoo! Japan states that as more housewives have begun to get on the net, the number of married users has increased.

Marriage Status	Survey in Jan 99
Married without children	2663	11.0%
Married with children	7562	31.3%
Single without children	13623	56.6%
Single with children	262	1.0%
Total	24110	100%

Yahoo! Japan http://www.yahoo.co.jp/docs/result/result6/

Internet Access Speed

Although more than 50% of Japanese Internet users can access the Internet at speeds of more than 32kbps, 15% of the users still use 28.8kbps modem at home. Moreover, 15.8% of the users who answered the Yahoo! Japan survey said that they don't know which modem they are using, and it may be safe to assume those are using these equally split between lower speed and higher speed modems.

Internet Access Speed	Survey in June 97	Survey in Jan 98	Survey in Sep 98	Survey in Jan 99
less than 14.4kbps	4.8%	2.5%	4.5%	3.9%
28.8kbps	36.4%	23.7%	20.1%	12.0%
32kbps	-	-	2.2%	2.3%
33.6kbps	15.0%	20.9%	21.2%	13.6%
56kbps	0.8%	5.5%	16.0%	17.8%
64kbps	15.5%	18.2%	19.2%	14.9%
128kbps	4.0%	5.4%	3.4%	2.9%
1.5Mbps	2.2%	2.2%	0.4%	0.6%
more than 1.5Mbps	2.2%	2.4%	0.7%	1.0%
Don't know	18.7%	18.8%	11.6%	15.8%
Total of users who access from home	(18,771)100%	(24,661)100%	(18,424)100%	(20,372)100%

Yahoo! Japan http://www.yahoo.co.jp/docs/result/result6/

Age Range

More than 80% of Japanese Internet users are between 20 - 39 years old. Thus, products whose target market falls with this age range are more likely to be sell. At the same time, the interest in the Internet among the elderly has been increasing. As with younger working females, the elderly are considered to have a larger disposable income, so, it would be a good idea to prepare a product for this selected elderly market.

Age	Survey in June 97	Survey in Jan 98	Survey in Sep 98	Survey in Jan 99
Younger than 19 years old	5.9%	5.2%	10.0%	9.7%
20s	43.6%	43.8%	48.3%	44.7%
30s	36.4%	36.3%	30.1%	31.0%
40s	11.5%	11.7%	9.2%	11.3%
50s	2.5%	2.7%	2.1%	3.2%
Total	(17,771)100%	(24,661)100%	(21,139)100%	(24,110)100%

Yahoo! Japan
http://www.yahoo.co.jp/docs/result/result6/

SEX

Male users still outnumber female by close to 3-1 in Japan; however, as mentioned earlier, this trend is now shifting.

Sex	Survey in June 97	Survey in Jan 98	Survey in Sep 98	Survey in Jan 99
Male	82.9%	83.3%	77.2%	74.0%
Female	17.0%	16.6%	22.7%	26.1%
Total	(18,771)100%	(24,661)100%	(21,139)100%	(24,110)100%

Yahoo! Japan http://www.yahoo.co.jp/docs/result/result6/

Residential Area

A Japanese Internet user is spreading all over Japan. More and more people outside of Tokyo have begun to use the Internet. This will allow you to conduct various marketing activities targeting people in many areas of the country.

Residential Area	Survey in June 97	Survey in Jan 98	Survey in Sep 98	Survey in Jan 99
Hokkaido and Tohoku (North East)	6.8%	8.0%	7.4%	8.8%
Tokyo	12.4%	17.0%	18.6%	15.9%
Kanto excluding Tokyo (East)	37.4%	28.7%	28.9%	26.4%
Chubu, Koushinetsu(Middle)	15.2%	15.0%	14.2%	15.4%
Kinki(Middle West)	14.9%	17.4%	18.0%	19.1%
Chugoku, Shikoku(West)	6.5%	6.9%	6.3%	7.2%
Kyushu, Okinawa(South West)	5.7%	5.8%	5.3%	6.2%
Overseas	0.6%	0.8%	0.8%	1.0%
Total	(18,771)100%	(24,660)100%	(21,139)100%	(24,110)100%

Yahoo! Japan http://www.yahoo.co.jp/docs/result/result6/

Frequently Visited Yahoo Categories

Sites with the greatest number of visitors are shown below by their respective category.

Category	Survey in Jun 99
Recreation and sports (including travel)	13,419	55.7%
Computers and Internet	10,697	44.3%
Entertainment	10,072	41.8%
Business and Economy (including shopping)	5,560	23.0%
News and Media	5,080	21.0%
Regional	3,934	16.3%
Science	2,079	8.7%
Reference	2,143	8.9%
Arts and Humanities	1,851	7.7%
Health	2,421	10.0%
Education	1,791	7.4%
Government	1,114	4.7%
Total	24,110

Yahoo! Japan http://www.yahoo.co.jp/docs/result/result6/

This information is from Nikkei Business Publications, Inc. (http://www1.nikkeibp.co.jp/NMM/9901/). Although the total number of respondents is much less than Yahoo! Japan's survey, there is useful information in this survey in order to understand the preferences of Japanese online shoppers.

Browser

Microsoft Internet Explorer is used by more than half of Internet users in Japan. Also more than 75 % of Internet users use the latest version of their browser which allows them to enjoy more complex sites..

Browser	Dec 97		June 98		Dec 98
Internet Explorer3.x or before	15.56%	Micro- soft 46.05%	10.24%	Micro- soft 54.44%	514	5.87%	Micro- soft 63.31%
Internet Explorer4.0 or later	30.49%	Micro- soft 46.05%	44.20%	Micro- soft 54.44%	5030	57.44%	Micro- soft 63.31%
Netscape Navigator3.x or before	30.09%	Net- scape 52.59%	12.66%	Net- scape 44.93%	610	6.97%	Net- scape 35.31%
Netscape Communicator4.0 or later	22.50%	Net- scape 52.59%	32.27%	Net- scape 44.93%	2482	28.34%	Net- scape 35.31%
Other	0.89%		0.45%		59	0.67%
No answer	0.47%		0.18%		62	0.71%

*Nikkei research in Dec 98
Total number of respondents=8757
Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.
http://www1.nikkeibp.co.jp/NMM/9901/

Method of Finding Websites

E-zine and E-news (online publications sent to e-mail address) are very popular in Japan. Due to the high charge of getting on the net, Japanese Internet users try not to get online too long. People prefer e-zines to net surfing hundreds of pages to look for particular information - they can read these e-zines offline and jump to the site they are interested in though the link of the e-zines. There are several companies which offer free E-zine (newsletter) delivering systems. The most famous Japanese company for this service is Mag Mag (http://www.mag2.com), 7,497 e-zines are published through this system, and the number of subscribers to those e-zines is 10,172,824. You can see publishing e-zine is an effective and efficient tool for marketing.

Method of Finding Websites	Dec 97	June 98	Dec 98
Search engines and directory	55.99%	57.46%	5662	64.83%
Mailing list, E-zines	20.77%	20.32%	1769	20.25%
Magazine and newspaper	12.98%	14.15%	483	5.53%
Links on web sites or Banner ads	4.75%	4.14%	462	5.29%
Advertising on TV, Newspaper, and Magazines	3.20%	2.08%	170	1.95%
Word of mouth	1.28%	1.01%	126	1.44%
Newsgroups	0.63%	0.60%	33	0.38%
Other	0.40%	0.24%	29	0.33%

*Nikkei research in Dec 98
Total number of respondents=8374
Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.
http://www1.nikkeibp.co.jp/NMM/9901/

Frequently Used Search Engines

Yahoo! Japan is still the number one search engine (directory) in Japan. Probably, this is due to its name recognition. Most of the beginner Internet users use a well-known search engine. However, when Yahoo shows a "No match" search result, which seems to happen often, people use other search engines.

Search Engines	Dec 97	June 98	Dec 98
Yahoo! JAPAN	50.82%	46.74%	4193	47.99%
goo	21.65%	26.37%	1817	20.80%
infoseek Japan	14.76%	16.07%	1432	16.39%
NTT DIRECTORY	3.66%	2.31%	249	2.85%
Lycos Japan	----	----	185	2.12%
Achara NAVI	1.95%	1.74%	182	2.08%
Excite Japan	0.23%	1.28%	129	1.47%
InfoNavigator	0.40%	0.83%	118	1.35%
CSJ Index	1.11%	0.87%	117	1.34%
Fresh Eye(new)	----	----	73	0.84%
AltaVista	2.00%	1.36%	69	0.79%
NETPLAZA	0.59%	0.45%	39	0.45%
Hole-in-ONE	0.67%	0.42%	30	0.34%
Netcenter(new)	----	----	12	0.14%
DRAGON	0.17%	0.11%	8	0.09%
HotBot	0.04%	0.09%	8	0.09%
OpenText	0.29%	0.11%	3	0.03%
other	1.45%	1.16%	73	0.84%

*Nikkei research in Dec 98
Total number of respondents=8737.
Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.
http://www1.nikkeibp.co.jp/NMM/9901/

Japanese Website Dislikes

Japanese Internet users seem to prefer a simple site which contains useful and interesting information. Updating your site quite often is a key to keep the visitors returning to your site. You don't need to make a big change but you should add some new information to your site frequently.

Dislikes	June 98	Dec 98
Graphics are too heavy and it takes too long to download the page	24.95%	2779	31.83%
It is difficult to find the information I want to know.	30.06%	2153	24.66%
The site doesn't get updated often enough.	16.05%	1392	15.95%
The site doesn't offer two way communications	8.81%	827	9.47%
There is not enough information	11.38%	717	8.21%
There is not interesting information for me.	5.61%	539	6.18%
The number of links to related sites is too little	1.07%	110	1.26%
Poor graphics	0.38%	54	0.62%
other	1.68%	159	1.82%

*Nikkei research in Dec 98.
Total number of respondents=8730
Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.
http://www1.nikkeibp.co.jp/NMM/9901/

Most Recently Purchased Item in Online Shopping

Japanese Internet users are getting used to purchase a variety of products.

Item Purchased Online	Dec 97	June 98	Dec 98
PC	18.46%	21.91%	748	19.28%
books, magazines	15.01%	22.84%	570	14.69%
Software	12.12%	8.00%	432	11.13%
Food	10.07%	8.73%	410	10.57%
Software to download	10.44%	6.72%	273	7.04%
Clothing	4.43%	4.17%	227	5.85%
CD, video, game	4.85%	6.99%	220	5.67%
Household goods (furniture, curtain, umbrella, kitchen goods)	4.71%	3.48%	154	3.97%
Airplane ticket, train ticket, hotel reservation	---	3.09%	147	3.79%
Household electrical appliance	1.63%	1.58%	115	2.96%
Fitness and Health products and health foods	1.91%	1.51%	86	2.22%
Flower, plants	---	1.85%	74	1.91%
Tickets for special events	2.57%	0.77%	56	1.44%
News, coupling service	3.17%	2.16%	45	1.16%
Digital date (documents, MIDI data, graphics)	2.80%	1.20%	40	1.03%
Jewelry	0.37%	0.39%	24	0.62%
Special regional products	0.98%	0.15%	14	0.36%
Car	---	0.04%	2	0.05%
other	6.48%	4.40%	243	6.26%

*According to a research in Dec 98.
Total number of respondents=3880. The Internet users who have experienced online shopping answered to this question.
Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.
http://www1.nikkeibp.co.jp/NMM/9901/

As you can see, interest and use of the Internet is growing in Japan, as is customer's willingness to shop online. LinkUp Services can help and give you an Internet presence for a fraction of what you might spend on a printed advertisement. Contact us at the below numbers.