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Could you write us an overview? All I know is that Japan has Asia's biggest online population, bigger than both Germany and the UK. What is the language situation? (Chinese are said to write in English to each other because of keyboard problems.) Are there search engines? And what role do they play? Anything you can lay your hands upon would be interesting. I feel like the first Jesuit padre, minutes before he set foot on your islands and became the first person from the West to visit Japan. (I.e. a total ignoramus.)
bill's really short Japan overview:
-Population: 126,549,976 (July 2000 est.)
-Currently ranks second most technologically powerful economy in the world after the US and third largest economy in the world after the US and China.
-GDP: - $2.95 trillion (1999 est.)
-GDP: - per capita: - $23,400 (1999 est.)
-World's 2nd largest online population (couldn't find figures)
> What is the language situation?
Despite what you may have heard, English is not a second language here. Compared to any other Asian country I have visited I'd have to say the level of English penetration in Japan is probably the lowest I've seen. The Japanese also continually round out the bottom of testing scores for English proficiency among Asian countries. So, the bottom line is that your average Japanese net surfer is looking for Japanese language content.
There are a large number of dialects spoken throughout Japan. Some dialects are virtually incomprehensible to the speakers of other dialects, requiring the use of the standard (or 'common') dialect for communication. Due to the spread of the common dialect through television and radio, most people outside the Tokyo region speak the common dialect as well as the dialect of their area.
The Japanese writing system is very complicated. It consists of three different character sets: Kanji (several thousands of Chinese characters) and Hiragana and Katakana (two syllable based 'alphabets' of 46 characters each; together called Kana). Japanese texts can be written in two ways: In the same way as Western texts are written in, i.e. horizontally from top to bottom, or in the traditional Japanese way, vertically from right to left.
Keyboards on PCs in Japan look almost identical to those in the West. They have the standard QWERTY layout with English letters as well as some Japanese glyphs. Inputting Japanese is done through the use of software, like Microsoft's [url=www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/features/ime.asp]Global IME[/url], that allows the user to input the sound of the word they want, and then the ability to choose the appropriate character from a dropdown list. (Can be time consuming)
> Are there search engines? And what role do they play?
There are quite a few Japanese search engines and directories. Many of them are Japanized versions of the engines that you all know like Excite, Lycos, and Infoseek (yes, it's still Infoseek here). There are several home-grown alternatives as well. I'm in the process of making a more comprehensive list of the engines and directories now, so you'll have to wait a bit for that info.
I'll try to add to this from time to time. I hope that gives you at least a small toe-hold. ;)
Cheers for all the info, much appreciated.
Pay at local convenience store
41.1%
8.2%
Credit Card
36.3%
13.7%
Payment by ISP
22.6%
17.1%
Postal account transfer (before receipt)
6.8%
22.6%
Payment Agency
24.0%
36.3%
Bank transfer (before receipt)
2.7%
37.7%
Bank transfer (after receipt)
4.8%
42.5%
Postal account transfer (after receipt)
5.5%
62.3%
COD
8.2%
76.0%
NOTE:
1Postal Savings Accounts are very popular in Japan. Many people have more confidence in postal accounts than banks. This is probably due to the high rate of bank failures and bankruptcies of late.
2Convenience stores are incredibly prolific in Japan. In some areas it would be hard to throw a rock and not hit one ;)
3data from June 2000
No answer
0.3%
0%
Electronic money
1.4%
1.8%
Bank transfer (before receipt)
1.4%
2.4%
Payment agency
5.1%
6.2%
Pay at local convenience store
19.4%
7.7%
COD
9.2%
13.6%
Bank transfer (after receipt)
28.6%
24.2%
Credit card
34.7%
44.0%
NOTE:
1data from June 2000
The convenience stores are already becoming places where you can go to pay your bills for phone, some utilities and other things. The infrastructure is already in place for these convenience stores to accept payments for other things, so the net stuff is a natural extension. Depending on the goods purchased, some of them are being picked up at these convenience stores.
For example, I got some concert tickets over the summer via my i-mode phone (thru the internet) and picked them up at a 7-11 convenience store. I just entered my confirmation number into the Internet kiosk and my tickets were printed out. I then proceed to the register and pay.
I can do similar things with several videos, DVDs, CDs, game software, even Windows 98 was first marketed here through convenience stores. They are more prolific than McDonalds, and you don't have to go far to find one.
Forgot to add -->
Right now certain convenience store chains only work with certain sites on the net. There is no "universal" standard. Therefore you can't just go into any store and get the same services.
Rakuten to acquire Infoseek Japan
$81 mln deal is biggest buyout of Japan Net service firm
Article here [cbs.marketwatch.com]
Rakuten to acquire Infoseek Japan
could you also tell us if any subjects are a no-go area? Sexual, moral, political... which (if any) are frowned upon?
There are some rather odd business taboos you might find interesting. I've been here so long that I tend not to notice many of them anymore, but I was just reminded of one today that could save your butt when writing copy intended for the Japanese customer. Don't compare your company to other companies directly when making a sales pitch, giving a presentation, making a catalog, or a web site. I couldn't explain exactly why this is, but companies here never say things like, "We're better than this company". For example, I think it was GM that came over here and tried an ad campaign saying how much better their cars were than Toyota's. People were really offended by this. Instead, I find myself having to compare my company's products to "Company X", or referring to "other leading brands" without stating the competitor's name or brand directly.
That's all I can think of for now, but if any more pop up I'll try to post them here.
I found this list:
[atrium.com...]
Is this still accurate? If so, which one of these gets the most traffic? Does anyone have stats on the top 3 Japanese search engines?
Thanks!
2M
That link you found is rather old and not up to date.
Goo is probably Japan's largest search engine. It still supplies Yahoo Japan's web page results and it is a major search engine in it's own right.
Most of the major English search engines, except AltaVista, are well established with Japanese versions.
Although I do not have any official stats, the results below are based on the last six months of visitor traffic to my website from Japanese SE's
www.yahoo.co.jp - 39.2%
www.excite.co.jp - 15.6%
search.msn.co.jp - 15.1%
www.goo.ne.jp - 14.4%
www.lycos.co.jp - 9.6%
www.infoseek.co.jp - 3.2%
I actually receive more visitors from Japan than the US, despite the fact that I have many top ten and number one ranking pages in all the major English SE's.
Please note that 99.7% of Japanese visitors to my site search in their own language. This indicates that it is vitally important to have your English pages professionally translated into Japanese.
Bill,
Are your Japanese SE stats similar to mine?
I come from the land DownUnder with a com.au domain.
Another question...how popular is WAP in Japan? Any WAP engines there as well?
i-Mode rules Japan. WAP has a small foothold. I'll get you stats next month. There are some small search engines for WAP. The best one is run by FAST.
Gotta get back to the beach. :)
That list is sensational! Google #1 !!! First place in the world where they have reached that position and well deserved in my opinion. Are the figures reliable? Anything you can tell us about the method behind them?
I should have clarified that previous list more. That is a ranking of Japanese SEs, but not in terms of popularity and use, but rather of their "search power", efficiency or relevance. "Search power" seems to refer to the size of the SE's database, factoring in the freshness of the listings and how relevant the returned results are. This data is from a source that has been maintained on a weekly basis since 1996 and seems reliable.
I'm going to look around for some more info on ranking in terms of general popularity. I haven't come across much recently updated info.
Here is a list ranking Japanese SE access from a client's site (site all in Japanese .co.jp domain) for 2000:
Google is really growing here, but it's still not number 1 in terms of traffic. It is rated (by some) as the most comprehensive and relevant Japanese SE though. We may see a groundswell for Google this year. Sorry for the confusion.
