Executive Summary

In Japan, digital will see incremental gains, while traditional media maintains its pivotal role—partly due to the aging population. Only Japan and South Korea will maintain their time spent with TV through the end of our forecast period.

How much time will adults in Japan spend with traditional media vs. digital?

In 2019, we forecast that adults (ages 18+) will spend an average of 4 hours, 9 minutes per day on traditional media and 3 hours, 8 minutes on digital. Time spent with digital will continue to gain, while time spent with traditional media will remain flat through 2021.

How much time will adults in Japan spend on traditional TV vs. digital video?

As a share of total time spent on video content, TV will account for 82.5% compared with digital video’s 17.5%. By the end of 2021, this ratio will be 80.7% to 19.3%.

How much time will adults in Japan spend on desktop/laptop vs. mobile?

This year, adults in Japan will spend 2 hours, 52 minutes online, of which 58.8% will be allocated to mobile and 41.3% to desktop/laptop. During our forecast period, mobile will continue to propel internet time spent, while desktop/laptop remains stable.

Is time spent with media and media ad spending aligned in Japan?

Digital, radio and TV ad spending are all underindexed in varying degrees compared with time spent—whereas print ad spending, including magazine and newspaper, are grossly overindexed.

WHAT’S IN THIS REPORT? This report features our latest forecast for time spent with media in Japan, including breakouts by traditional media and digital. It also digs deeper into the relationship between traditional TV and digital video.

KEY STAT: In 2019, adults in Japan spend an hour more per day with traditional media than they do with digital media. TV will account for the largest share of time spent with traditional media this year, at 3 hours and 21 minutes a day.

Behind the Numbers

Our methodology for our Japan time spent with media forecast is based on an analysis of 1,660 metrics from 41 sources. This analysis involves the collection of third-party data—primarily survey data—from adult respondents, asking them about their media use habits. Data is also sourced from online and mobile activity tracking services, government data and interviews with industry experts.

Using a bottom-up analysis, we assess and analyze reported time spent with each device and media activity across various sources. And where definitions differ, the data is normalized and interpreted in terms of our definition (i.e., the Japan population ages 18 and older). The data is then aggregated with the time contributions from each device and media type to arrive at an estimate for average time spent with media per day.

In order to arrive at forecasts for growth rates by media and by device, this analysis is followed by extensive assessments of historical and expected future growth patterns with regard to device adoption, multiple and overlapping device usage, population and demographic factors, and competitors to existing devices and activities.