Major ad agencies Japan 2021, based on sales revenue

With a sales result of almost 1.3 trillion Japanese yen, Hakuhodo DY Holdings Inc. was the leading advertising agency in Japan in 2021. It was followed by Dentsu Group Inc., which recorded sales of more than 939 billion yen.

The Japanese advertising market

The Japanese advertisement market is the third-largest advertisement market in the world, ranking only behind the United States and China. While traditionally television was the leading medium when it came to advertising expenditures in Japan, online advertising overtook television for the first time in 2019. Total advertising expenditures showed a growth trajectory in the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly due to the increase in online and event advertising. Performance-based advertising in particular has contributed to the growth of online ads.

The largest competitors

The two largest advertising agencies in Japan are Dentsu and Hakuhodo, which are both headquartered in Tokyo. Both agencies are mainly active in the fields television, marketing, and promotion, as well as internet media, as breakdowns of Dentsu's turnover and Hakuhodo's gross billings by business category show. Dentsu in particular has a strong hold on television advertising slots due to being a top shareholder in several television companies. Next to online advertising, overseas markets have become more important for both agencies in recent years, as several acquisitions of foreign companies indicate.