By Daisuke Wakabayashi
Ride a Tokyo subway and you are almost guaranteed to see two groups of people: Those who are sleeping — not just casual nappers, but folks who are full-on, deep-REM-cycle, drool-down-the-chin asleep.
- AFP/Getty Images
- A man takes a picture of mobile phones during the portable phone design exhibition “Mobile Tide 2010.”
The other group comprises people staring blankly or furiously punching the keys of clamshell phones with giant screens.
So it shouldn’t come as much surprise that a survey by research group comScore’s MobiLens service finds that the Japanese are the “most connected” mobile-phone users in the world. Three of every four Japanese use their phones to either browse the Web, access applications or download content to their handsets. This compares to 44% in the United States and 39% in Europe.
Dig into the survey and some interesting trends emerge. Only 40% of Japanese send text messages, while two-thirds of Americans and 82% of Europeans engage in short message service, or SMS. Why is this?
The Japanese just prefer to send emails, a function that mobile Internet services like NTT DoCoMo Inc.’s i-mode service has enabled that for years. While the proliferation of smartphones has made sending emails on the go more common in the U.S. and Europe, the usage figures still trail that of Japan. The report says 54% of Japanese send emails from their phones, compared with 28% of Americans and 19% of Europeans.
One of the unique features offered in Japanese cellphones — sometimes lampooned as “Galapagos” models because the technological innovations are specifically tailored to suit Japanese consumers’ needs and haven’t been adapted for wider use outside of Japan — is putting Japan ahead of the game in terms of watching video on their phones. Many Japanese watch television on 1seg, a mobile terrestrial digital-audio and video-data broadcasting service. The report said 22% of Japanese watch TV or video on their phones, as opposed to 5% of Americans and Europeans.
Other interesting trends from the comScore report: The Japanese are the most likely to check the weather on their phones, the Europeans are the most likely to listen to music on their handsets, and Americans are the most likely to tap into social networks on the go.
Follow Daisuke Wakabayashi on Twitter @daiwaka
Corrected POST:
i spoke to some japanese friends and it seems that you can only send/receive sms on the same carrier. you cannot also send/receive sms from international carriers. This leaves people with no choice but to use email. This is more of an example of how technologically obsolete some of the products in the Japanese market are in certain aspects and nothing to be proud of. I am not denying that Japanese technology is ahead in many aspects.
i spoke to japanese and it seems that you can only send/receive sms on the same carrier. you cannot also send/receive sms from international carriers. This leaves people with no choice but to use SMS. This is more of an example of how technologically obsolete some of the products in the Japanese market are in certain aspects and nothing to be proud of. I am not denying that Japanese technology is ahead in many aspects.
Mr. Wakabayashi, thanks for this post. I think you showed some very interesting facts about how Japanese approach technology. When I visited Tokyo this past July, I noticed that most people especially men, were constantly entranced with their various electronic devices. Waiting for my train in the subways, I got a chance to view many people and how they interact with mobile devices. After several weeks I noticed exactly what you were describing in this post. It seems that people in Japan do use their phones for a lot more things than simple tasks like texting or using other apps. I was wondering if you chose the title of this blog to say something about Japanese identity as related to technology. I think your statement about Japan being the most connected country says volumes about how technology has such an important role in Japanese society.
I was wondering what your opinion was on the state of Japanese society in terms of its infatuation with technology. It is very apparent that Japan has often been identified by its production and perfection of technology. From my own observation and research it is clear that many Japanese use technology to interact with the world in a way that seems to eclipse conventional forms of communication. Do you think that the increased fusion of the internet and mobile technology will further this phenomenon? I think Japan is an excellent place to start in exploring the relationship between humans and digital communication. It seems to be a very important topic for Japan because of the emerging social networks and increased cellphone use. Things like Amega Pigg and other forms of communication via the internet seem to provide an escape from interpersonal communication. I was curious as to your thoughts on this. I would very much like to thank you again for your post as it says a lot about not only Japan but the future of technology in the world.
2 things to point out though are:
a) the mobile sites that are being most used are low grade, basic html web sites for phones not equipped to handle regular web sites. Most people in Japan are still using flip phones with this basic mobile web access only. Use of regular internet sites is down in Japan compared to many other countries, and the kinds of functions people use the internet for are fairly low tech. The trend in other countries is to bring the full internet to the phone, while in Japan it continues (as for the last 10 years or so) to be to downgrade the internet to fit the old school phones. Another side effect is the creating of a parallel internet for Japan users only. Often these sites block PC access, and some even block non-Japanese characters, effectively creating a modern information “sakoku” (closed country).
And
b) people don’t use SMS because Japanese mobile service companies are only set up to handle SMS mail among their own customers. Cross company emails don’t exist, so a Docomo customer and a Softbank customer HAVE TO use email to send written messages to one another.
Ken
Tokyo, Japan
Tung, it’s not that much different from T9 predictive text.