A few weeks ago, Dentsu released the 2017 annual report on the advertising expenditures in Japan. (https://www.dentsu.com/news/release/2018/0222-009475.html) According to the report, the overall spending on advertising grew to 6.4 trillion yen (approx. US$60 billion) last year, which was the increase of 1.6% from 2016. The ad spends in Japan has been growing for six years straight.

It reported that the advertising spends on Internet went up by 15% and that the growth of performance-based ads and video ads directed at mobile device users was particularly strong. On the other hand, the advertising spends in the traditional offline media including newspapers, magazines, and television all decreased except in radio which went up by 0.4%.

Looking at the advertising expenditures by medium, it is notable that the spends on Internet advertising have reached 1.5 trillion yen (approx. US$14 billion), which increased by 15.2%. Internet advertising spends accounted for 23.6% of spending in all media.

Of 27 industry categories surveyed during 2017, the advertising spends increased in 6 categories. The real estate and housing facilities category had the most ads spends increase (up 8.9%). The home electric appliances and AV equipment category had the most decrease (down 11.2%).