With the development of technology in recent years, the usage of the Internet among the Japanese people has increased significantly, especially among people aged 50 and above .

Based on changes in Japanese Internet users over the past two years , Macromill, an online marketing research company in Japan , defines people aged 50 and over as seniors and people aged 65 and over as older adults, and reports on "application log data" and Internet usage trends of smartphones and computers used by seniors and older adults.

The time spent on Internet slightly exceeds that spent on TV

Data shows that in the second half of 2020, the media usage frequency of the elderly was television (6.6 days/week), the Internet (5.3 days/week), newspapers (4.2 days/week), and radio (2.0 days/week). The use of television and the Internet was relatively stable. In addition, 5.4 days/week were spent on the Internet via computers, and 5.3 days/week were spent on the Internet via smartphones.

In terms of daily usage time, the Internet 's 3.3 hours/day is slightly higher than TV 's 3.2 hours/day.

When asked whether the number of times they surfed the Internet increased or decreased in the past six months, the majority of respondents said that they surfed the Internet more. Thirty percent of respondents said that they surfed the Internet more, and 25 percent said that they watched TV more.

Rise in usage of video on demand and social apps

In terms of usage rates of application categories, from high to low, they are " Movies ", "SNS", "News", "Music", and "Video on Demand", all of which have increased in the one and a half years from July 2019 to December 2020. In particular, "Video on Demand" and "SNS" have continued to grow in the past year .

Last year, the apps that helped increase the usage of “Video on Demand” were Netflix and Amazon Prime . The apps that helped increase the usage of “SNS” were   LINE , Twitter and Instagram .

In terms of usage time, YouTube has seen a significant increase, from 179 minutes per month in July 2019 to 280 minutes per month in December 2020 , an increase of about 1.5 times in one and a half years . Older users have begun to use YouTube steadily , and their usage time is approaching that of LINE .

In addition, the usage time of "TikTok" and "A bemaTV " has increased since around March 2020, when the new coronavirus infection began to spread .

When asked whether Internet use would increase in the future, 30% of respondents chose "computers" and 40% chose "smartphones." It is foreseeable that the ownership rate of smartphones and the use of smartphone applications will continue to increase, and the digital transformation of Japan's elderly is gradually accelerating.

Japanese elderly

Digitalization

Internet usage rate