Universidad Piloto de Colombia

Laura Milena Castillo Talero

David Santiago Laverde Rojas
Next Generation Networks (NGN)

Japan: Market Structure

Introduction
Japan, officially known as the State of Japan, is a country located on the Asian continent
whose capital is Tokyo. It contains a population of more than 126,000,000 people,
according to the census executed in 20191, and its official currency is the Yen, which is
approximately 32 Colombian pesos.
It is a technological potential due to its investment in research and development (3.5% of its
annual GDP)2 and that is why it is interesting to know how its telecommunications structure
is established. Japan has the most advanced telecommunications network in the world
because the use of mobile phones and the internet is very high3.
Mobile Network Operators
Its main mobile operators are NTT-DoCoMo, Softbank and AU, with a market distribution
of 40%, 30% and 30% respectively.4
 NTT-DoCoMo: Japanese mobile phone operator that provides internet, voice and
an email service. It is a public company and the government owns 33% of the share
value and in 2008 all of its clients were approximately 53 million, which is more
than half of the telephone market in Japan.5

 Softbank: Japanese company that offers telecommunications and Internet services,

operating with broadband, electronic commerce, technology services, among others.
It was ranked, in the Forbes Global 2000 list, as the 36th largest public company in
the world and the second largest publicly traded company6.

 AU: It was originally configured as two networks: DDI (managed by independent

telephone companies) and IDO (NTT Hi-cap analog cellular system). It is currently
a brand marketed by KDDI in some islands of Japan and in Okinawa for its mobile
services7.
In March of this year, the Japanese government approved a project to reduce mobile phone
service rates. This project establishes that “Currently, Japanese companies charge high fees
for the use of data in exchange for subsidizing purchases of phones”8, which is why now
“operators must charge phones and data separately”.8
Having said the above, it can be inferred that mobile services were mandatory in postpaid;
however, there are prepaid phones and prepaid data cards9. These prepaid methods were
established mainly for tourism because they offer data and voice plans or only data, but
there are also portable Wi-Fi devices. These allow internet connection from any cell phone
and operator and can be accessed by several people at the time10.
Universidad Piloto de Colombia
Laura Milena Castillo Talero
David Santiago Laverde Rojas
Next Generation Networks (NGN)

ISDB-T
ISDB (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting) is a set of standards for broadcasts (audio
and video) of digital radio and television. It is made up of several families of components
such as digital terrestrial television (ISDB-T), satellite television (ISDB-S), cable television
(ISDB-C), digital radio (ISDB-Tsb), among others. This set of standards created by Japan
incorporates the mobile terrestrial audio/video transmission service called “1sec” (One
Seg), which allows direct and free transmission to cell phones.11.
MVNO’s

Figure 1: MVNO's in Japan. Retrieved from https://www.sakuramobile.jp/japan-wifi/mvno-japan-comparison-

which-japan-mvno-is-right-for-you/

In the previous table, it can be seen that there are 10 MVNO’s that are currently active and
in turn what are some of their characteristics, allowing a comparison between them.
Universidad Piloto de Colombia
Laura Milena Castillo Talero
David Santiago Laverde Rojas
Next Generation Networks (NGN)

Mainly it can be seen that in the majority there is a mandatory contract duration, which
means that the Japanese are not at all happy and generate a distrust of both virtual and real
operators since they feel that the operators obtain an excessive benefit, but they were not
being honest with the costs.
It can also be seen that the main network used by MVNO’s is DoCoMo, and although this
is a success for them, tourists are advised to use other networks because it is saturated a
large part of the time10.
It can be said that there is a variety of MVNO’s that the Japanese can use, but the high costs
they have caused discontent in potential users, causing them to express their complaints
and, therefore, the government establishes laws such as the one mentioned above.
Conclusions
With the as mentioned before, it can be concluded that, of the telephone operators, the one
with the greatest dominance in the market is DoCoMo (40%). However, this percentage is
comparable with companies such as Softbank (30%) and AU (30%). However, the fact that
DoCoMo has the greatest domain does not make it the best operator in all aspects, since the
other operators have better characteristics in some aspects such as speed, price (depends on
the chosen plan) and network saturation. It can also be concluded that Japan was the
founder of the ISDB-T standard which shows the integration between mobile phones and
fixed lines such as television.
REFERENCES
1 WIKIPEDIA (s.f.) Japón. Recovered from: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jap%C3%B3n
2 Acosta, N. (2018). Japón, líder en innovación tecnológica. Recuperado de:
https://www.semana.com/contenidos-editoriales/japon-el-mundo-al-derecho/articulo/japon-
lider-en-innovacion-tecnologica/588248
3 Export Entreprises SA (2019). Japón: Información Práctica. Recovered from:
https://es.portal.santandertrade.com/establecerse-extranjero/japon/informacion-practica
4 Villasana, J. (2017). Viajamos a Japón y nos dimos cuenta que en los móviles ya no es lo
que era antes. Recovered from: https://www.xataka.com.mx/celulares-y-
smartphones/viajamos-a-japon-y-nos-dimos-cuenta-que-en-los-moviles-ya-no-es-lo-que-
era-antes
5 WIKIPEDIA (s.f.). NTT Docomo. Recovered from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTT_Docomo
6 WIKIPEDIA (s.f.). SoftBank Group. Recovered from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftBank_Group#SoftBank_Corp.
Universidad Piloto de Colombia
Laura Milena Castillo Talero
David Santiago Laverde Rojas
Next Generation Networks (NGN)

7 WIKIPEDIA (s.f.). au (mobile phone company). Recovered from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_(mobile_phone_company)
8 A.A. (2019) Gobierno de Japón: con nueva ley, tarifas de telefonía móvil serán más
baratas. Recovered from: https://internationalpress.jp/2019/03/06/gobierno-de-japon-con-
nueva-ley-tarifas-de-telefonia-movil-seran-mas-baratas/
9 Go! Go! Nihon Staff (2017). Teléfono y tarifas de los móviles japoneses. Recovered
from: https://gogonihon.com/es/blog/moviles-japoneses-y-sim/
10 Javi (2018) Internet en Japón. Cómo y por qué viajar siempre conectado: Wifi, SIM, etc.
Recovered from: https://japon-secreto.com/internet-en-japon-sim-pocket-wifi/
11 WIKIPEDIA (s.f.) ISDB-T. Recovered from: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISDB-
T#En_Jap%C3%B3n
12 A.A. (2018). Los japoneses desconfían de las empresas de telefonía y sus altas tarifas.
Recovered from: https://www.nippon.com/es/features/h00320/