Blogging in Japan

Blogging in Japan. The BIG internet trend in Japan that matters to Australian exporters Several interesting facts about blogging in Japan...

Technorati's "State of the Blogosphere" reports that in April 2007, 37% of all posts to weblogs (aka "blogs") in the world are in Japanese. English language posts to blogs come in second with 36%. These statistics are based on raw numbers, not adjusted for population differences. In the blogosphere, 127 million Japanese are out-posting the entire English speaking world! If you are curious, worldwide there are about 1.5 million posts to blogs in all languages everyday.

Ubiquitous high speed mobile phone access to the internet in Japan means that a significant percentage of blogs are accessed from mobile phones. In September 2006, data from online market research firm, Impress R&D, indicated that 26% use moblogs ("mobile blogs"). Using mobile phones to talk on crowded public transport in Japan is seen as extremely anti-social.

Instead, everyone seems to be checking their own and others' blogs. Almost three-quarters (74%) of Japanese internet users surveyed by Edelman, said that they read blogs at least once a week. Comparable figures for the UK are just 23% and the USA, 27%. According to the same research, 18–24 year olds read blogs five or more days every week. Females are just as likely to read blogs as males, but when the do, they are more frequent readers of blogs compared to males. In Edelman's research, "influencers" (defined as people who are socially and politically active in their communities) are, not surprisingly, more frequent bloggers in all countries surveyed.

However, in Japan more than 90% of "influencers" also said that they read others' blogs. The comparable figures in the UK and USA are only in the 34%–35% range. The different cultural motivations of bloggers in Japan, the topics about which they post, and the degree of anonymity that they prefer, makes the Japanese version of the blogosphere quite different to the English language one. Many Japanese posts relate to everyday topics such as pets, music and childcare issues, but there are blogs for virtually everything else under the sun as well.

Typically Japanese posts read like personal diary entries rather than as being self-promotional or supporting a particular line. The number of female internet users in Japan outnumbers males for all age groups up until 40-somethings, and only then do males gain the upper-hand, 50.7% to 49.3%. In a recent study by Nikkei Research, more than half of all Japanese females in their teens and twenties acknowledge that what they read in blog helps form their purchase decisions across a broad range of products.

Types of product purchase decisions most influenced what they read in blogs relate to books, food items, and home electronics. Female consumers also read blogs for information relating to music CDs and DVDs, cosmetics, fashion and accessories. If you are an Australian exporter for whom the reputation of your product or service in the Japanese market matters to you, next time that you are talking to your distributor or reseller in Japan, why not ask what they are doing to build a profile for you in the Japanese blogosphere. If your product is ultimately more like to be purchased by female consumers, all the more urgency.

If you have Japanese language skills at your disposal, why not dive in to see what you can do for yourself. PS. In 2006, spending in Japan for traditional advertising media fell by approximately 2%. Spending on internet advertising increased by 29.3%.

Sources: Nikkei Research DataSignal, Technorati, Edelman, Impress R&D Ian Brazier,Trade Commissioner, Tokyo Japan