Streaming in Japan - statistics & facts
The arrival of leading international companies such as Netflix in 2015 and Spotify in 2016 has spurred on the Japanese streaming market by increasing the competition for domestic players. As Japanese content distributors, which had relied on traditional distribution channels and physical media longer than their counterparts in other countries, had to adapt to a changing market environment, video and music streaming services became more attractive and more widely adopted by consumers. The market size of paid video streaming services has grown tremendously since then, reaching a value of 525 billion Japanese yen in 2023. In a similar fashion, the music streaming sales value jumped from just 26.3 billion yen in 2017 to about 105.6 billion yen in 2023.
Both video and music streaming are set to grow further from here on out. One factor is the ongoing switch from 4G to 5G services, which improves the speed, capacity, and latency of mobile internet connections and provides better user experiences in areas such as live streaming.
Video streaming
While video sharing services such as YouTube and Niconico Douga have been an integral part of the Japanese video streaming landscape since the mid-2000s, video-on-demand (VOD) services initially did not take off to the same degree as they did in other advanced economies. Hulu, for instance, has been active in Japan since 2011 but initially struggled because of a lack of local content. Its Japanese version experienced a strong price cut in 2012 before it was sold to Nippon TV in 2014. The market attracted more attention with the introduction of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in September 2015, which led to intense competition in the latter half of the 2010s which also saw the market entry of DAZN in 2016 and Disney in 2019. While survey figures show that Amazon Prime Video has established itself as the leading service among paid video streaming users, Netflix now holds the highest market share among subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services based on user fees. Domestic competitors include VOD services such as U-Next, TVer, Abema, and Lemino, among others.Music streaming
The development in the music streaming market followed a similar pattern. Apple Music, Google Play Music, and Amazon Prime Music entered the Japanese market in 2015, followed by Spotify in 2016 and YouTube Music in 2018. Initially, music streaming services suffered from a limited selection of songs, as many Japanese record labels saw streaming as a threat to highly profitable physical sales. Due to the relatively high fragmentation of the Japanese music market, streaming services also had to negotiate with numerous companies over licensing agreements. The reluctant stance of the labels has been changing throughout the years, as a shrinking CD market makes alternative revenue streams necessary. Streaming overtook downloads in terms of revenue for the first time in 2018 and today accounts for the lion’s share of digital music sales. Domestic players include services such as LINE Music, AWA, au Smart Pass Premium Music, d hits, and Tower Records Music.Both video and music streaming are set to grow further from here on out. One factor is the ongoing switch from 4G to 5G services, which improves the speed, capacity, and latency of mobile internet connections and provides better user experiences in areas such as live streaming.
