Julia Stoll
Research expert covering TV and video media
Media industry in Japan - statistics and facts
Japan is home to a large and highly developed media industry. The size of the media content market alone amounted to about 12.6 trillion Japanese yen in 2023. The media content market can be divided into three segments: video-based, audio-based, and text-based content. Text-based media, which includes products such as newspapers, magazines, and books, historically predate other types of mass media. In the case of Japan, text-based media forms were understandable for many people even prior to the establishment of the modern education system, as private educational institutions, such as temple schools, ensured a relatively high literacy rate of the Japanese population. More recently, print media has experienced a considerable loss in reach due to the competition posed by online media. This can be seen, for instance, in newspaper circulation, which has declined significantly in recent years.
