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A complete guide to social media in Japan
In this guide, we introduce most popular social media platforms in Japan and advise best online marketing practises for each platform.
Before we delve into each social media platform, here are some facts you should know about social media in Japan.
Now that you can see that Japan is different to most Western markets, let’s take a closer look at the social media scene in the Japanese market.
Based on monthly active user (MAU) numbers, the most widely used social media platforms in Japan are LINE and YouTube. The top social networking platforms are Twitter, Instagram, then Facebook – in that order.
Japan’s most popular messaging app, LINE, has over 94 million MAU in the country and a total of 187 million globally3. Categorised as a super app and similar to the Chinese app WeChat, LINE has a multitude of features other than messaging, such as a newsfeed, a cashless payment system, a games library, TV streaming, digital comics and an ecommerce platform. What is more, famous for their animated stickers, LINE even has retail stores that sell official character merchandise.
As you can see in the graphs above, more than half of the LINE users are over 40, but this is mostly due to the aging population in Japan. Many people from every age group, for both men and women, use the app on a daily basis. This makes LINE Ads one of the most effective ways for businesses to get ad impressions on smartphones.
For further information about LINE, its users and implications for digital marketing, please refer to our other articles, Why LINE is the most popular messenger app in Japan and How to use LINE Ads for businesses targeting mobile users in Japan.
The popularity of YouTube in Japan is undeniable. The video sharing platform had over 62 million MAU as of October 2018. According to Alexa, almost 5% of all traffic comes from Japan, ranking the country in 3rd place for number of visitors on YouTube4. According to the JustSystems “Mobile and Social Media Monthly Survey: December 2019 Edition” (see graph below) and Globalwebindex Q3 2019 survey1, YouTube is the most used social media platform in Japan among internet users.
What is worth noticing is that top YouTube channels in Japan are mostly Japanese, with many famous Japanese YouTubers such as Hajime (8.65M subscribers) and HikakinTV (8.45M subscribers). A platform that was once dominated by Japanese pet videos is now full of content that gives insight into real opinions of the Japanese people.
A platform known to be dwindling in users and tweets worldwide is still experiencing massive popularity in Japan. In terms of users, Japan comes in second place after the USA with 48.45 million users1. Similar to LINE, the catalyst for Twitter’s popularity was the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, where people needed an up-to-date source of information and means of communication. Twitter saw a 33% increase in Japanese users that year.
The secret behind Twitter’s popularity, however, may be attributed to the use of aliases on anonymous accounts. As Reuters mentions we also believe that this allows Japanese users to express their opinions freely, making Twitter a great platform to collect market data on products and services.
The most popular social networking platform for younger generations is Instagram. According to Instagram, there are 33 million users on their platform in Japan5. Their largest audience is aged 18-29, spending over 100 million hours on Instagram a month. Impressively, Japan comes in first place globally for the number of daily “stories” at 7 million per day6. The engagement rate on Instagram is also extremely high in Japan, placing them second to Greece at 4.93%7. In addition, Japanese influencers have high engagement rates in every influencer category.
The world’s most popular social networking platform1 is not the most widely used in Japan. It does, however, still have 26 million users with most of them in their 20s and 30s6. An interesting feature about Facebook in Japan is that Japanese people have been using the platform mainly for business networking. This explains why LinkedIn has had a slow uptake in Japan.
This is a video sharing service in Japan that ranks 12th on Alexa’s Top Sites in Japan. Aside from uploading videos and video live streaming, Niconico have other services such as news, blogs, affiliate and advertising.
Once a clone of Snapchat, SNOW is a selfie camera app owned by Naver, LINE’s parent company. They have selfie-centric filters, stickers and AR tailored towards a younger audience. In 2016, the app raised $50 million from SoftBank Group and Sequoia China.
The relatively new video sharing platform, TikTok, already has 9.5 million MAU in Japan. With most users in their 10s and 20s6, this is an app used by many influencers in Japan to create video content for other platforms. In fact, their successful expansion into Japan can be accredited to influencers such as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.
This is a social networking platform which is known more for their blog service. As you can see on SimilarWeb’s top websites in Japan, www.ameblo.jp ranks 18th compared to 38th for www.ameba.jp.
It’s worth mentioning that blogging has long been popular in Japan, with the Japanese language coming in first place for most blogged language in 2007. It may be the anonymity of blogging that attracts many Japanese users.
With over 82 million social media users in Japan and a multitude of platforms to choose from, it is important to create the right content for the appropriate platform, depending on your product, service and target audience.
Hiring social media marketing experts for the Japanese market is a fool-proof and efficient way to reach customers in Japan. Contact us to find out more about our services.
1Source: “Digital 2020” report by Hootsuite
2Source: “Global Twitter Users 2019” by eMarketer
3Source: Line Corp. (April 2020)
4Source: youtube.com on Alexa
5Source: Instagram Day Tokyo 2019 by Instagram Business
6Source: “Most popular social media platforms in Japan” by We Love Social (March 2020)
7Source: “Top 10 countries with the highest and the lowest Instagram engagement rate” by Hype Auditor
