Investing in Japan

Why Japan?

10 Advantages to Investing in Japan

8. Rapidly growing broadband society

Japan has the world's fastest and most cost-effective broadband environment and is rapidly moving towards becoming a true ubiquitous society.

Demand in broadband has shifted from ADSL(*1) to FTTH(*2)
The markets for a number of service fields, such as IP telephony and content distribution, have suddenly expanded
The explosion of the amount of information handled by the increasing demand for business networks has propelled the development of new Wide Area Network (WAN) services.

Further expansion can be anticipated in the future with rapid growth in intra-company teleconferencing and intercompany networks (e.g., in supply chain management), as well as increasing introductions of systems that enable administrative procedures to be conducted electronically.

Broadband penetration

Source: "White Paper on Information and Communications Japan 2006," Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications;
2010 estimates are by Fuji Chimera Research Institute

Changes in the number of connections in use in intra-company networks by new WAN service

Source: "Survey on Supply-side and Demand-side Trends for Telecommunications Services" (April. 2006), Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

The integration of mobile devices continues to grow, with handheld electronics including features such as music playback, electronic transactions, TV reception and GPS/navigation functions. In addition, electronic transactions are clearly becoming more integral to the retail sector. As we move towards a more networked society, demand for stable communication speeds and technologies to improve security can be expected to grow.

Changes in Internet-using population by device

Source: "White Paper on Information and Communications Japan 2006," Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

Breakdown of Consumer-oriented Electronic Transactions and Mobile Commerce

Source: "White Paper on Information and Communications Japan 2006," Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

Technologies, products and services that Japanese companies would like to bring to the market in the medium to long-term (3-5 years) through collaboration with foreign companies: Top 10 fields (as of the end of June 2006).

Home Network	Home Network is a residential local area network. With the increasing availability of broadband Internet service and affordable PCs, more people are networking their multiple PCs and network-capable devices to use a single broadband outlet, usually through a cable or DSL provider.
Next Generation Mobile Devices	Next Generation Mobile Devices includes PDAs, mobile phones, and smart computers that are mobile and contain new technologies such as authentication systems, broadband content, mp3 players and so on.
Web 2.0 (Including SNS)	Web 2.0 generally refers to a second generation of services available on the Internet that lets people collaborate and share information online. In contrast to the first generation, Web 2.0 gives users an experience closer to desktop applications than the traditional static Web pages. Social Networking Service (SNS) is social software specifically focused on the building and verifying of social networks for whatever purpose. Many social networking services are also blog hosting services.
Online Security	Technologies demanded are anti-fishing systems and information leakage security systems. Also with increasing demand on online shopping, security of personal data on shopping sites are interests as well.
Broadband Content	The upcoming focus of broadband content in Japan are the following: on-demand movie/animation/music distribution and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) uses.
IPv6	Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) is a network layer standard used by electronic devices to exchange data across a packet-switched internetwork. IPv6 is intended to provide more addresses for networked devices, allowing, for example, each cell phone and mobile electronic device to have its own address.
Distributed Computing	Distributed Computing is designated and parallel computing, using two or more computers communicating over a network to accomplish a common objective or task. The type of hardware, programming languages, operating systems and other resources may vary drastically. It is similar to computer clustering with the main difference being a wide geographic dispersion of the resources.
Biometrics Identification System	Biometrics technology enables identification of a person by unique human characteristics such as hand geometry, retina, iris, face, etc. With this technology, high security and easy recognition of users can be obtained.
Image/Speech Recognition	Image Recognition: The identification of objects in an image. This technology can be used to inspect defects or identify products, which can lead to production efficiency and increase in safety. Speech Recognition is a computerized analysis of spoken words in order to identify the speaker, as in security systems, or to respond to voiced commands. The analysis is performed by finding patterns in the spectrum of the incoming sound and comparing them with stored patterns of elements of sound, as phones, or of complete words.
License/Contents Management	License/Contents Management is a computer software system for organizing and facilitating collaborative creation of documents and other content. A content management system is frequently a web application used for managing websites and web content, though in many cases, content management systems require special client software for editing and constructing articles. The market for content management systems remains fragmented, with many open-source and proprietary solutions available.

Source: JETRO Online Survey (as of June, 2006)

Note:

(*1) ADSL
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. Allows high-speed, always-on Internet access through ordinary telephone lines.

(*2) FTTH
Fiber To The Home. Enables ultra-high-speed telecommunications environment through direct home connection to optical-fiber lines.

(*3) Mega Data Nets
Mega Data Nets is a broadband network service provided by NTT East Japan using leading-edge Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology.

(*4) Wide Area Ethernet
Wide Area Ethernet is an electronic communications service that uses a technology enabling the connection of geographically separated LANs, etc. using an Ethernet interface.
Wide Area Ethernet has the following advantages over IP-VPN:
Fast communications, with limited delays.
The user can use communication protocols other than IP, simply by converting to Ethernet.
L2 and L3 switching for low-cost VLAN can be used.
High degree of freedom in constructing networks, and flexibility in adding bases, changing protocols, etc.

(*5) IP-VPN
IP-VPN is Virtual Private Networks created using the IP networks established by communications companies. Using IP-VPN, networks in distant areas can be operated as if they were connected by a LAN.

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