Japan App Market Guide 2026
The Market Size, Growth and Key Players Overseas Companies Should Know First

01🌏 Market Size: Third in the World, with an Extremely Skewed Mix

Japan's mobile market is notable for attracting more consumer spending than its population size alone would suggest. According to Adjust × Sensor Tower's "Mobile App Trends Report 2025: Japan Edition," consumer app spending in Japan was $16.5 billion in 2024, third in the world. Narrowing to mobile games, Sensor Tower's "Japan Game Market Insights 2025" puts IAP revenue at about $11 billion (August 2024–July 2025), and the 2026 edition at over $10 billion (¥1.56 trillion, down 5.1% year over year) (August 2025–July 2026). In monthly country shares as well, mobile game consumer spending in July 2026 was 29.5% for the US, 16.7% for China and 12.3% for Japan, third in the world (Sensor Tower, August 2026). With a total population of about 122.68 million (Statistics Bureau of Japan, MIC, "Population Estimates," preliminary figure as of August 1, 2026), that works out to about $90 per person per year on mobile games alone (editorial calculation: $11 billion divided by total population).

When citing country rankings, however, pay attention to the fine print. Sensor Tower's country shares count China on iOS only (excluding third-party Android stores). The actual Chinese market is larger, and materials that describe Japan as "second in the world" are likely using older data or a method that treats China differently.

About two-thirds of app spending goes to games

What overseas companies really need to look at is not the total but how skewed the mix is. Against Japan's consumer app spending of $16.5 billion (2024), mobile game IAP revenue was about $11 billion (August 2024–July 2025). Because the measurement periods differ, this is not a precise ratio, but as a rough guide about two-thirds of spending goes to games. Worldwide, by contrast, IAP revenue in 2025 was $167 billion, of which games accounted for about $81.8 billion — only about 49% — and non-game apps (about $85.6 billion) overtook games (Sensor Tower, "State of Mobile 2026").

In other words, Japan is a market where the act of "paying on mobile" is heavily concentrated in games. When a product that has succeeded worldwide with non-game subscriptions or in-app purchases falls far short of expectations only in Japan, this structure often explains it.

Scale in downloads and time spent

It is worth knowing the non-monetary indicators too. In 2025, Japan recorded 2.65 billion app downloads and 114 billion hours spent in apps (Adjust × Sensor Tower, "Mobile App Trends Report 2026: Japan Edition," July 2026). For mobile games alone, the 12 months from August 2025 to July 2026 saw about 585 million downloads (down 5.4% year over year) and about 16.7 billion hours of play (Sensor Tower, September 2026). Individual smartphone ownership has reached 78.9% (MIC, "2025 Communications Usage Trend Survey"), so the room for growth lies less in acquiring new users than in competing for existing users' free time.

Worldwide, 2025 saw about 150 billion downloads (up 0.8% year over year), 5.3 trillion hours of usage (up 3.8%) and IAP revenue of $167 billion (up 10.6%) (Sensor Tower, "State of Mobile 2026"). Downloads are roughly flat and only revenue is growing — that is the underlying trend of today's mobile market. Japan's mobile game market, meanwhile, is a mature market where IAP revenue holds at around ¥1.6 trillion even as downloads decline; over the latest 12 months it stalled at -5.1% year over year (Sensor Tower, September 2025 and September 2026).

The top apps by downloads and by revenue are different

In Q1 2025, the top apps by downloads in Japan were TikTok, Pokémon TCG Pocket and ChatGPT. The top apps by consumer spending, however, were LINE Manga, Piccoma and Pokémon TCG Pocket — a very different line-up (Adjust × Sensor Tower, "Mobile app trends 2025: Japan edition").

This offers an important clue about the Japanese market: outside games, the very top of consumer spending is occupied by manga apps. Japanese users are very used to "buying content in small amounts, continuously," and both gacha in games (paid randomized draws for characters or items) and per-chapter payments in manga are extensions of the same spending behavior. If you are targeting Japan with a non-game product, a design built on pay-per-use and small payments tends to land better than a subscription-only model.

Not just manga: a culture of paying small amounts again and again

This habit of "paying small amounts again and again" is not limited to manga and gacha. Small payments made at high frequency are rooted across many genres, and that is what makes the Japanese market unusual. Here are four typical examples.

Online crane games and oripa have many operators but no official market statistics yet. Treat the figures above as reference points from adjacent markets or individual companies.

What the four have in common is a structure where each payment is small, and people keep paying as long as the fun continues. For Japanese users, gacha, per-chapter manga payments, online crane games, oripa and live-stream tipping all sit on the same line of spending behavior. Even for non-game products, whether you can offer payment points that ride on this behavior determines profitability in Japan.

That said, monetization built on chance sits close to regulation. In September 2026, a law firm asked the Consumer Affairs Agency to investigate five major online oripa operators for possible violations of the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions. In October, the Japan Trading Card Association issued a statement calling consumer trouble caused by some operators "a serious issue." If you design randomized monetization, check the applicable rules, such as the Premiums and Representations Act and the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions, with qualified professionals in advance.

02📱 Devices and OS: What "iOS Around 65%" (Web Traffic) Means

Globally, the conventional wisdom is Android 67.45% and iOS 32.52% (Statcounter, August 2026), but in Japan this structure is reversed. In the same Statcounter data for August 2026, Japan's mobile OS share is iOS 64.95%, Android 35.04%, making it one of the major countries where the iPhone is used most. As explained below, however, this figure is based on web traffic (page views).

"65%" and "48%" — how to read the range

Japan's iOS share varies widely depending on what is being counted. Statcounter's figure is a web-traffic-based estimate using page views on sites that run its tracker: 64.95% in August 2026. By contrast, in MMD Research Institute's (MMD研究所) "September 2025 Smartphone OS Share Survey" (ages 18–69, n=34,414), the smartphone respondents mainly use was iPhone 48.3% and Android 51.4% — roughly 50/50 by device. The institute's August 2026 survey (age range expanded to 18–79) put iPhone at 45.6%. Statcounter's own figure for Japan also swings by month: 58.90% in June 2026 and 64.95% in August.

In practice, it is better not to force this gap into a single number. The accurate reading is the structure "device ownership is roughly 50/50, but iPhone users generate more than 60% of web usage." In the same MMD survey, the iPhone share reached 81.0% among women in their 20s, so the effective OS split varies greatly by target audience. For budget allocation and creative testing design, get actual measurements for your own target audience early.

Why OS share shapes measurement design

This matters well beyond device statistics. With the majority of usage happening on iOS, the mainstream of the market is fully subject to the constraints of ATT (App Tracking Transparency) and SKAdNetwork/AdAttributionKit. The global average ATT opt-in rate is only about 38% (Adjust, "Mobile App Trends 2026," Q1 2026), and Japan's is 21.4% (H1 2025, among iOS users shown the ATT permission prompt), far below the global average (Adjust × Sensor Tower, "Mobile app trends 2025: Japan edition"). By category in Japan, games are highest at 31%, while finance is only 14.5%. Users who can be tracked individually via IDFA are a minority, and in practice the numbers depend on the app category and the design of the explanation screen shown beforehand (the pre-prompt).

As a result, the following differences arise.

Putting it into practice

A common mistake is to bring your home market's Android-centric operating logic to Japan unchanged and try to adjust later. SKAN conversion value design is hard to retrofit, and budget burns away while no early data is captured. The rule for entering Japan is to finish conversion value mapping and measurement window design before starting UA.

03📲 Social Media Usage: A Fragmented Structure Centered on LINE

In Japan, LINE (the dominant messaging app) and YouTube are national infrastructure with usage rates in the 80–90% range, while Instagram, X, TikTok and Facebook are finely split by age and gender. A US-style plan of "build around Facebook and you reach every generation" does not work in Japan.

Latest figures (FY2025)

According to the Institute for Information and Communications Policy (情報通信政策研究所), MIC, "FY2025 Survey on Usage Time of Information and Communications Media and Information Behavior" (N=1,800), usage rates across all ages are as follows.

By age, the roles are completely different

The same survey's data by age shows clearly distinct characters for each platform.

Unit: %. Green marks each service's peak segment. Source: MIC, "FY2025 Survey on Usage Time of Information and Communications Media and Information Behavior" (N=1,800)

Four things stand out. Instagram is 82.6% among people in their 20s, with women at 63.4% versus men at 46.2% — strong with young women. X peaks at 73.4% among people in their 20s, stays strong into the 30s and 40s, and shows no gender gap. TikTok is highest among teens at 67.9%, but reaches 42.6% even among people in their 40s — it is no longer "a platform only for young people." And Facebook peaks at around 38% among people in their 30s and 40s, with teens at 14.3%; unlike its image overseas as "for male business users," in Japan there is almost no gender gap.

LINE's position deserves special attention. Its 92.9% usage rate stands out even compared with messaging apps in other countries, reaching 77.8% even among people in their 70s. But LINE functions as "a channel for retention," not "a platform for spreading content." Expecting LINE to generate new awareness will miss the mark. The right way to use an Official Account is as a path for keeping acquired users and bringing them back.

LINE has become national infrastructure for keeping in touch, but while people open it very often, each visit is very short. As a result, its influence as an ad medium for building mass awareness is limited. The ad media with overwhelming mass reach in Japan are YouTube, Instagram and TikTok: people stay on them for long stretches to watch video, and ads reach them within that viewing. A practical split is to build your acquisition budget around these three and use LINE for keeping the relationship after acquisition.

The premise: competing for free time

In the same survey, weekday internet usage time was 183.9 minutes and (real-time) TV viewing 156.1 minutes. On holidays the figures were 192.9 and 189.2 minutes respectively, so the internet now consistently outranks TV. However, weekday internet time rose only about two minutes from the previous year (181.8 minutes); the total amount of free time is not growing much. What a new app is trying to win is time that existing apps already hold. Planning without this premise — assuming "there is still time no one has claimed" — tends to inflate early acquisition plans.

04💰 Monetization: A Few Who Pay Deeply, and Many Who Keep Paying a Little

Since about two-thirds of app spending goes to games, understanding how Japanese users pay largely overlaps with understanding how games monetize. Even for non-game products, knowing what Japanese users pay for, and how, is highly valuable.

Two markets sit side by side in Japan. One is a market where a small number of payers spend deeply, typified by games. The other is a market where many users keep paying small amounts at high frequency, as with per-chapter manga payments, online crane games and live-stream tipping. Which one your product rides on, or whether it combines both, changes how you build your revenue plan.

RPG + strategy make up about 60% of revenue

According to Sensor Tower's "Japan Game Market Insights 2025" (September 2025), RPGs accounted for 37.4% and strategy for 21.8% of Japan's mobile game revenue (August 2024–July 2025) — these two genres alone make up about 60%. Puzzle games account for a third of all downloads but only 9.2% of revenue. In Japan, designs built around deep stories, character progression, gacha and limited-time events are strong.

Change is happening inside these genres, though. In the same report (year-over-year change for July 2024–June 2025), squad RPGs (-21%), puzzle RPGs (-22%) and MMORPGs (-21%) saw revenue declines, while 4X strategy rose 35% and card battlers jumped 305% (driven by Pokémon TCG Pocket). "Japan = RPGs" is right, but where the growth is within that has shifted.

About a third pay — and a tenth of those spend over ¥10,000 a month

Game monetization is highly dependent on a small number of big spenders. Two public surveys confirm this "few pay deeply" structure.

In a survey by SB Payment Service (conducted March–April 2025 among men and women who regularly play smartphone game apps), 35.2% of all respondents had made in-game purchases. The rate of out-of-app purchases (such as web payments) was 24.3% overall, and high among people in their 20s (40.6%) and 30s (34.6%). Among those spending ¥30,000 or more a month, 66.7% said they "very much want to pay outside the app if it is cheaper than paying in-app," so the bigger the spender, the more sensitive they are to payment method (SB Payment Service, May 2025).

A look inside the paying population comes from Sarugakucho (猿楽庁), the research division of HIKE (a survey of 1,000 people who paid in mobile games in 2023, published in 2025). Light spenders (¥10,000 or less a month) made up 89.5%, mid-tier spenders (¥10,000–50,000) 7.5% and core spenders (over ¥50,000) 3%. In other words, about one in ten payers spends more than ¥10,000 a month, and 3% spend more than ¥50,000.

This structure directly affects how you build revenue forecasts. Estimating Japan's potential from average ARPU alone will misread reality. In Japan, the gap between median and mean is large, so "how deeply you can monetize the top tier" determines the business plan. A revenue plan that simply adds up the number of small payers is therefore likely to miss. The small, pay-per-use payments described earlier should be offered as an entry point to paying, designed together with paths to recurring payments and the top tier — that is how to structure monetization for Japan.

If you are entering Japan with a non-game product

The other market, where many keep paying a little, is largest outside games. As noted, the top of non-game consumer spending is held by LINE Manga and Piccoma. The implication is clear: Japanese users are used to "small, frequent payments for content," while a menu consisting of a single monthly subscription for features tends to clash with this habit.

The typical pattern for SaaS and tool products that struggle in Japan is entering with the same single plan as at home — "$XX a month, all features included." A generous free tier, usage-based pricing, and time-limited unlocks used in combination tend to match Japanese spending behavior better.

05🔍 Search: Google Dominance, and Diverging "AI Usage Rates"

Search share in 2026

According to Statcounter's August 2026 data, Japan's search engine shares are Google 62.83%, Bing 28.47% and Yahoo! 6.98% (accessed October 28, 2026).

These figures need two adjustments, however. First, Yahoo! JAPAN announced in 2010 that it would adopt Google's search engine and search-linked advertising (Yahoo Japan Corporation, July 27, 2010), so Google's algorithm determines results for about 70% of searches (Google + Yahoo!). You can treat Google's standards as the technical requirements for SEO. Second, Bing's 28% is Statcounter's figure measured by web page views, and it is likely inflated in part by default settings in Windows/Edge. In practice there is no need to budget for Bing as "30% of the market," but it is no longer something you can ignore, as you once could.

Is generative AI usage 26.7% or 54.7%?

A caveat here: the figures circulating for AI usage in Japan vary by more than a factor of two depending on the survey. Materials for overseas companies often state a single number — "X% of Japanese use AI search" — but the reality is not that simple.

The gap is explained by different definitions of population (the whole population vs. internet users) and period (ever used vs. the past year). Neither is wrong. ICT Research & Consulting projects that the number of users will reach 35.53 million by the end of 2026; by service, ChatGPT accounted for 36.2% and Gemini for 25.0% of those with usage experience.

For business planning, the practical approach is a three-part framing: "just under 30% of the whole population, over 50% of internet users, and growing fast." If you persuade people internally with a single figure, the discussion will stall later when someone brings up a different survey.

Generative AI usage rates change a lot from month to month. Treat the figures here as reference values as of each survey.

First steps in GEO

Traffic via AI search is still small relative to the total. But readers in the comparison stage are thought to be the most likely to ask AI, so the impact on actual deals shows up first in B2B and high-involvement products. For overseas companies entering Japan, Japanese-language information about them is usually thin to begin with, so there is high value in preparing primary information of your own that AI can reference.

06📢 Ad Market: ¥8.0623 Trillion, with Internet Ads a Majority for the First Time

According to Dentsu's "2025 Advertising Expenditures in Japan" (announced March 5, 2026), total ad spend in Japan was ¥8.0623 trillion (105.1% of the previous year), a record high for the fourth consecutive year.

The 2025 breakdown

The biggest headline is that internet ad spend reached ¥4.0459 trillion (110.8% of the previous year), and its share of total ad spend passed half for the first time, at 50.2%. The four traditional mass media (newspapers, magazines, radio and TV), by contrast, were nearly flat at ¥2.298 trillion (98.4% of the previous year), with a share of only 28.5%.

Vertical video is driving the growth

"Internet advertising media spend" — internet ad spend excluding production costs and ad spend on product-sales e-commerce platforms — was ¥3.3093 trillion (111.8% of the previous year). Dentsu attributes this growth mainly to video advertising, particularly the growth of vertical video ads on social media.

For overseas companies, this translates directly into practical priorities. The first creative to prepare for Japan is not a horizontal brand film but short vertical video — and not a translated version of home-market assets, but something rebuilt for the context of Japanese feeds.

How to think about budget allocation at entry

The ad market's media mix is not a direct guide for budget allocation. For an overseas app's launch, the standard approach is to prioritize certainty of acquisition over awareness. Specifically, an easy sequence is to secure a floor with performance-based (CPI/CPA) campaigns, add upside with programmatic vertical video ads, and expand search once branded demand appears.

07💳 Payments: The Skewed Mix Behind 58% Cashless

In-app purchases are controlled by Apple and Google, but cross-border e-commerce and web-billed subscriptions are a different story. Here too, the Japanese market has a distinctive structure.

58% and 46.3%: two indicators

According to figures published by METI on March 31, 2026, Japan's cashless payment ratio for 2025 was 58.0% (¥162.7 trillion in payments). This, however, is the figure under a new domestic indicator; under the conventional international comparison indicator it is 46.3%. When comparing with overseas materials, always check which indicator is being used. The government has set targets of 65% by 2030 (domestic indicator) and 80% in the long term.

The reality: credit cards are 82.7%

The claim that "QR code payments are surging in Japan" is only half true. Looking at the breakdown, credit cards account for 82.7% (¥134.6 trillion) of cashless payment value, and remain by far the main method.

Code payments (QR/barcode smartphone payments such as PayPay, Rakuten Pay, au PAY and d-Barai) accounted for 10.2% (¥16.6 trillion). That is only a tenth by value, but they are used for small, frequent payments and cannot be ignored when reaching younger users. E-money is only 3.7% and debit cards 3.4% (METI, March 2026).

Payment design for cross-border e-commerce

The practical conclusion from this structure is simple. First, make sure credit cards go through reliably. Then add two or three code payment options, and convenience store payment for people without credit cards — in that order of priority.

08🏢 Key Players: Games, Ecosystems and Growing Niches

The key players in Japan's app market fall broadly into two layers: game publishers and platform operators. According to Sensor Tower, domestic publishers hold the majority of Japan's mobile game IAP revenue (September 2025). As a map for overseas companies considering competitors and partners, here they are with their latest financial results.

Games: the wall of established IP

Established IP is entrenched in games, and head-on new entry is difficult. Realistically, the standard approaches are "IP collaborations," "differentiation in genres that are underserved in Japan" or "positioning that leverages a global context."

Platforms: the major ecosystems

In social and e-commerce, partnership designs that take into account the Rakuten ecosystem and LY Corporation's ecosystem — LINE, Yahoo! JAPAN and PayPay — are effective. Mercari, which has expanded from its flea-market app into payments (Merpay), is also essential as a touchpoint for consumer-to-consumer transactions. Because point programs are deeply embedded in consumer behavior, which ecosystem you join often determines acquisition efficiency. Major players in video streaming are ABEMA, U-NEXT and Netflix; in fintech, Money Forward and the SBI group.

A growing niche: finance apps

Even as the overall market matures, some categories are clearly growing. In Adjust's measurement, installs of stock investment apps in Japan rose 90% year over year in January–May 2026, and finance apps overall rose 8% (Adjust × Sensor Tower, "Mobile App Trends Report 2026: Japan Edition," July 2026). One likely factor is the new NISA program (Japan's tax-exempt investment account scheme) launched in January 2024 (Financial Services Agency (FSA, 金融庁)), which broadened the group of people interested in investing.

This is a classic example of a regulatory change creating demand: in Japan, revisions to regulations and programs can open up new markets. Keeping an eye on the regulatory calendar is highly valuable when timing your entry.

09🎯 First-Move Checklist for Launching in Japan

Based on everything above, here are the items to cover in the first moves of a Japan launch.

Decide before you start

• OS strategy: Build iOS-first measurement (ATT / SKAN 4 / AAK). Finish conversion value mapping before UA begins
• Monetization design: Consider whether you can combine small, pay-per-use payments and time-limited unlocks rather than a single monthly plan
• Payments: Credit cards (EMV 3-D Secure) as top priority; add two or three code payment options and convenience store payment
• Regulatory compliance: "PR" labeling under the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations (景品表示法), the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions (特定商取引法) and the stealth marketing rules; disclosure of gacha odds; the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (個人情報保護法)

Run in the first 90 days

• Creative: Prepare short vertical videos in volume. Rebuild them for the context of Japanese feeds rather than translating
• Acquisition: Secure a floor with performance-based channels (ASP — affiliate networks — / CPI) and add upside with programmatic ads
• Retention: Design your LINE Official Account as a path for bringing users back. Do not expect LINE to generate new awareness
• SEO / GEO: Prepare your own primary information in Japanese, and put structured data and an FAQ in place
• Localization: Go beyond translation to culturalization that addresses cultural and emotional nuances

❓ FAQ

📚 Related articles

📖 Sources

• Sensor Tower, "State of Mobile 2026" (published January–February 2026) — worldwide IAP revenue $167 billion, games about $81.8 billion, about 150 billion downloads, 5.3 trillion hours of usage (all 2025)
  sensortower.com/blog/state-of-mobile-2026
• Sensor Tower, 「2025年日本のゲーム市場インサイト」 (Japan Game Market Insights 2025) (September 2025) — Japan mobile game IAP about $11 billion (August 2024–July 2025), revenue mix by genre, changes by subgenre, share held by domestic publishers
  sensortower.com/ja/blog/state-of-japan-gaming-2025-JP
• Sensor Tower, "Japan Gaming 2026" (September 2026) — Japan mobile game IAP over $10 billion (¥1.56 trillion, down 5.1% year over year), about 585 million downloads, about 16.7 billion hours of play (August 2025–July 2026)
  sensortower.com/blog/state-of-japan-gaming-2026
• Sensor Tower, 「2026年7月：世界のモバイルゲーム収益・ダウンロード数トップ10」 [July 2026: Top 10 worldwide mobile games by revenue and downloads] (August 2026) — consumer spending share by country: US 29.5%, China (iOS only) 16.7%, Japan 12.3%
  sensortower.com/ja/blog/top-10-worldwide-mobile-games-by-revenue-and-downloads-in-july-2026-JP
• Adjust × Sensor Tower, "Mobile app trends 2025: Japan edition" (July 2025) — Japan consumer app spending $16.5 billion, third in the world (2024); top apps by downloads/consumer spending in Q1 2025; Japan ATT opt-in rate 21.4% (H1 2025) and values by category
  a.storyblok.com (PDF distributed by Adjust)
• Adjust × Sensor Tower, 「モバイルアプリトレンドレポート2026：日本版」 [Mobile App Trends Report 2026: Japan Edition] (July 29, 2026) — 2.65 billion downloads and 114 billion hours of usage in 2025; stock investment app installs up 90% (January–May 2026)
  prtimes.jp (Adjust press release)
• Adjust, "Mobile App Trends 2026" (February 18, 2026) — global average ATT opt-in rate 38% (Q1 2026)
  businesswire.com (Adjust press release)
• Statcounter GlobalStats, "Mobile Operating System Market Share" Japan / Worldwide, and "Search Engine Market Share Japan" (August 2026, accessed October 28, 2026)
  gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/japan
• MMD Research Institute (MMD研究所), 「2025年9月スマートフォンOSシェア調査」 [September 2025 Smartphone OS Share Survey] (October 21, 2025) — main device: iPhone 48.3%, Android 51.4%; iPhone share among women in their 20s 81.0%
  mmdlabo.jp/investigation/detail_2496.html
• MMD Research Institute, 「2026年8月スマートフォンOSシェア調査」 [August 2026 Smartphone OS Share Survey] — iPhone 45.6% (ages 18–79)
  mmdlabo.jp/investigation/detail_2567.html
• Apple Developer, "Receiving postbacks in multiple conversion windows" — SKAdNetwork 4 number of postbacks, measurement windows and sending delays
  developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/
• Statistics Bureau of Japan (総務省統計局), 「人口推計」 [Population Estimates] as of August 1, 2026 (preliminary) — total population 122.68 million
  stat.go.jp/data/jinsui/new.html
• Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC, 総務省), 「令和7年通信利用動向調査の結果」 [Results of the 2025 Communications Usage Trend Survey] (May 29, 2026) — individual smartphone ownership 78.9%
  soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01tsushin02_02000183.html
• Institute for Information and Communications Policy (情報通信政策研究所), MIC, 「令和7年度 情報通信メディアの利用時間と情報行動に関する調査報告書」 [FY2025 Survey Report on Usage Time of Information and Communications Media and Information Behavior] (June 26, 2026) — social media usage (all ages, by age, by gender); average usage time by medium
  soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01iicp01_02000130.html
• MIC, 「令和7年版 情報通信白書」 [2025 White Paper on Information and Communications in Japan] — share of individuals who have used generative AI (Japan 26.7% / US 68.8% / China 81.2%)
  soumu.go.jp/johotsusintokei/whitepaper/ja/r07/html/nd112210.html
• ICT Research & Consulting (ICT総研), 「2026年2月 生成AIサービス利用動向に関する調査」 [February 2026 Survey on Generative AI Service Usage Trends] (February 20, 2026) — generative AI usage among internet users 54.7%; breakdown by service
  prtimes.jp (ICT Research & Consulting press release)
• Sensor Tower, 「日本と世界のAIアシスタントアプリ市場」 [AI assistant app market in Japan and worldwide] (October 2026) — ChatGPT downloads in Japan (over 11 million, January–August 2026); first in AI assistant app revenue in Japan
  sensortower.com/ja/blog/state-of-ai-assitant-apps-JP
• GameBusiness.jp, 「売上226%増のエンジンはUUUMとのIPコラボ…『DMMオンクレ』の次の一手とは」 [DMM Onkure interview] (July 2, 2025) — online crane game market (a little over ¥20 billion as of 2020, about 30 operators); DMM Onkure FY2024 sales 226% of the prior year
  gamebusiness.jp/article/2025/07/02/24538.html
• Japan Toy Association (日本玩具協会), 「国内玩具市場規模（2015年度〜2025年度）」 [Domestic toy market size, FY2015–FY2025] — card games and trading cards: ¥302.47 billion in FY2024, ¥338.41 billion expected in FY2025
  toys.or.jp/pdf/2026/gangu_siryou_2015-2025.pdf
• GameBusiness.jp, 「オンラインオリパ一部業者の消費者トラブルは『重大な課題』―日本トレカ協会が声明」 [Japan Trading Card Association statement on online oripa] (October 23, 2026) — the association's statement; request to the Consumer Affairs Agency (September 7, 2026)
  gamebusiness.jp/article/2026/10/23/28427.html
• gamebiz, 「DeNA、26年3月期決算は売上収益9%減、営業益35%減に」 [DeNA FY2026/3 results] (May 12, 2026) — live streaming revenue ¥39.79 billion, segment profit ¥3.98 billion
  gamebiz.jp/news/425748
• Yahoo Japan Corporation (ヤフー株式会社), "Yahoo! JAPAN to adopt Google's search engine and search-linked ad delivery system" (「Yahoo! JAPAN、Googleの検索エンジンと検索連動型広告配信システムを採用」) (July 27, 2010)
  lycorp.co.jp (IR news, English PDF)
• Dentsu (電通), 「2025年 日本の広告費」 [2025 Advertising Expenditures in Japan] (announced March 5, 2026) — total ad spend ¥8.0623 trillion; internet ad spend ¥4.0459 trillion, 50.2% share; four mass media ¥2.298 trillion; promotional media ¥1.7184 trillion
  dentsu.co.jp/news/release/2026/0305-011003.html
• Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI, 経済産業省), 「2025年のキャッシュレス決済比率を算出しました」 [Cashless payment ratio for 2025 calculated] (March 31, 2026) — cashless ratio 58.0%; breakdown by payment method
  meti.go.jp/press/2025/03/20260331006/
• Credit Transaction Security Council (クレジット取引セキュリティ対策協議会), 「クレジットカード・セキュリティガイドライン」 [Credit Card Security Guidelines] (version 5.0 sets the end of March 2025 as the deadline for e-commerce merchants to implement EMV 3-D Secure in principle)
  j-credit.or.jp/security/document/
• SB Payment Service (SBペイメントサービス), 「スマホゲームアプリの利用・課金状況に関する調査」 [Survey on smartphone game app usage and spending] (May 14, 2025) — paying rate 35.2%, out-of-app purchase rate 24.3%, values by age
  atpress.ne.jp/news/436264
• HIKE Sarugakucho (猿楽庁), 「サルガクチョウサ vol.7」 [Sarugaku Survey vol.7] (n=1,000 payers in 2023) — payer mix: light 89.5% / mid 7.5% / core 3% (news article cited because the primary source could not be confirmed)
  automaton-media.com (survey report article)
• Financial Services Agency (FSA, 金融庁), 「NISA特設ウェブサイト」 [NISA special website] — the new NISA program from January 2024
  fsa.go.jp/policy/nisa2/
• PayPay Corporation becoming a consolidated subsidiary — Z Holdings timely disclosure (October 2022)
  jpx.co.jp (timely disclosure PDF)
• Company financial filings — Sony Group (Game & Network Services segment), Nintendo, Bandai Namco Holdings, Square Enix Holdings, Capcom and LY Corporation (FY ended March 2026), Rakuten Group (FY ended December 2025), Mercari (FY ended June 2026). Earnings reports (kessan tanshin) and results presentations on each company's IR site