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Video-streaming Services in Japan Ramp Up Competition amid Stay-Home Boom

AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
The Netflix menu is shown on a screen in Pittsburgh, on Monday, Oct. 17, 2022.

Jiji Press

12:17 JST, April 5, 2023

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — With competition heating up in the video-streaming market in Japan, efforts to shore up and reorganize such businesses by service providers have spread so as to secure more viewers.

Aided by demand among people spending more time at home amid the spread of the novel coronavirus, the video-streaming market in Japan has grown over the past few years, with competition intensifying in line with the participation of non-Japanese service providers such as Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. of the United States.

Some have criticized the market for excessive competition.

“Reform centered around improving our services is crucial in expanding our [market] shares further,” said an official at NTT Docomo Inc., a major Japanese mobile phone carrier which also offers a video-streaming service.

One of the key attributes of video-streaming services is that people can enjoy movies and other content on their smartphones and other devices whenever they want.

Over 10 flat-rate paid subscription services of video steaming are currently available in Japan, including those operated by non-Japanese firms and companies partly owned by television broadcasters, with many producing their own original content.