Ishii (2003) - Internet Use via Mobile Phone in Japan

8/2/2019 Ishii (2003) - Internet Use via Mobile Phone in Japan

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Telecommunications Policy 28 (2004) 4358

Internet use via mobile phone in Japan

Kenichi Ishii*

Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8573, Japan

Received 1 October 2002; accepted 1 July 2003

Abstract

Approximately 40% of the population enjoy access to the Internet via mobile phones in Japan, where

user needs have driven developments of the mobile Internet such as i-mode. After reviewing mobile

Internet services in Japan, this article examines key social and cultural factors of mobile Internet use based

on nationally representative surveys focusing on differences between PC and mobile Internet. The results

demonstrate that mobile Internet is a more time-enhancing activity while PC Internet is a more time-

displacing activity. Additionally, this article discusses unique Japanese cultural factors affecting

communication patterns characterized by the high disclosure of subjective self and low disclosure of

objective self, which may explain the unique usage patterns of the mobile Internet in Japan.

r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Japan; Mobile phones; Internet; i-mode; Culture; Displacement effect; Self-disclosure

1. Introduction

Japan enjoys the highest diffusion rate of mobile Internet1 in the world (Fig. 1).2 The number of

Internet-enabled mobile phones is over 54 million, which is 77% of the total mobile phones as of

June 2002 (Telecommunications Carrier Association, 2002). Major Japanese carriers, NTT

DoCoMo, KDDI, and J-Phone, provide a variety of advanced mobile Internet services includingglobal positioning system (GPS), Java applications, picture and video mail, as well as standard

email and web browsing services.

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*Tel.: +81-298-535181; fax: +81-298-553849.

E-mail address: [email protected] (K. Ishii).1 In this article, the term mobile Internet refers to an access to the Internet via mobile phones, excluding PDA and

wireless LAN, because the penetration rate of the Internet access via these devices is still almost negligible. For example,

the penetration rate of Internet access via PDA was only 1.2% in Japan according to a WIP 2001 survey.2Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications (2002).

0308-5961/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.telpol.2003.07.001


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Currently, three major operators provide mobile Internet services in Japan. They are i-mode,

Sky-web, and Ez-web.3 These mobile Internet systems allow for a short message service (non-

Internet mail), email (Internet mail), web browsing, and additional advanced services such as

picture mail.

1.1. Mobile Internet services

i-mode, the web access protocol on NTT DoCoMos terminals, is the most successful mobile

Internet access model in the worldwide telecom market. This service, launched in Japan inFebruary 1999, has attracted more than 33 million users three years after the launch. i-mode users

number total 600,000 abroad, 500,000 in Europe and 100,000 in Taiwan. In 2001, NTT DoCoMo

started i-appli, which is a Java-based service through which subscribers can download and run

small Java-applets on their i-mode cellular handsets. In 2001, NTT DoCoMo started 3G mobile

phone service, which accesses the Internet at up to 384 kbps using packet transmission that allows

for i-mode service. The other major telecommunication operators in Japan, KDDI and J-Phone,

also provide mobile Internet services.

Table 1 compares the three major Japanese mobile phone Internet systems. Japanese operators

are relying increasingly on growing ARPU in data services to offset the sharp drop-off in voice

ARPU resulting from intense competition and market maturity. Sky-web launched a web-

browsing service via mobile phone in 1998, a year earlier than i-mode and one year after thelaunch of a short message service. In 2000, J-Phone featured Sha-mail (picture mail), a service

which allowed users to take still photos using a small digital camera built into their mobile phone

and send them to other users mobile phones via email. In April 2003, the number of subscribers

to NTT DoCoMos picture mail service topped 10 million. Picture mail is especially popular

among young people. As of May 2003, over 20 million picture mail handsets are in use in

Japan.

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72.5

59.1

16.513.8

9.4

7.9

7.9

7

6.9

6.6

5.6

0 20 40 60 80

Japan

Korea

FinlandCanada

Singapore

U.S.

Germany

Italy

U.K.

Taiwan

France

Fig. 1. Mobile phone Internet compatibility rate (ratio of the number of subscribers to the mobile Internet to the

number of subscribers to mobile phones) in the major countries and regions (as of 2001) (Ministry of Public

Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications, 2002).

3There are also Internet services for Personal Handy Phone System (PHS), but the web browsing service is not

common for PHS.

K. Ishii / Telecommunications Policy 28 (2004) 435844


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1.2. 3G mobile phone services

Following the success of i-mode and other mobile Internet services, major Japanese mobile

phone carriers started 3G (third generation) mobile phone services. However, so far, the 3G

services have not been successful except for CDMA 2000 1 by KDDI. NTT DoCoMo aimed to

have 1.46 million Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access (FOMA) subscriptions at the end offiscal year 2002, but it has floundered because FOMA presently supports communications in a

limited service area. In contrast, KDDI obtained over 8 million subscribers to its 3G phone

service (CDMA 2000 1 ) as of May 2003.

While FOMA requires new equipment, CDMA 2000 1 only requires the enhancement of

existing equipment such as base stations. The biggest appeal of CDMA 2000 1 is that its service

can be easily expanded to regions where mobile phone services are already offered. KDDI users

can switch to 3G service by adding 300 yen ($2.5) to their current monthly bill.

However, the success of KDDI should not be exaggerated. The increase in the number of 3G-

enabled phones by KDDI resulted from compatibility with the existing service, not from the more

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Table 1

Comparison of major mobile Internet and 3-G services in Japan

Operator NTT DoCoMo J-Phone KDDI

Voice ARPUa 6520 yenb 5839 yenc 6390 yend

Data ARPUa 1630 yenb 1433 yenc 930 yend

Internet Service i-mode Sky web EZ-web

Number of Subscribers (April 2003) 37,758,000 12,540,500 12,161,800

% of mobile phone users 86.5% 87.0% 77.9%

Monthly basic fee 300 yen 0 yen (200 yen for long mail

service)

200400 yene

Transmission speed of Packet

Communication

28.8 Kbps 28.8 Kbps 14.4 Kbps

Web fee 0.3 yen/packet 2 yen/1 KB 0.10.27 yen/

packeta

Email fee 0.3 yen/packet 3 yen (sending short mail);

8 yen (sending long mail);

0 yen (receiving)

0.27 yen/packet

3-G Service FOMA Vodafone global standard CDMA 2000-1x

Time to start October 2001 December 2002 April 2002

Maximum data transmission speed

(downward)

384 Kbps 384 Kbps 144 Kbps

Number of subscribers (April 2003) 330,000 25,200 6,805,900

% of users 1.0% 0.2% 52.5%

Source: NTT DoCoMo: http://www.nttdocomo.ne.jp.

J-Phone: http://www.japan-telecom.co.jp/ KDDI: http://www.kddi.com/aaverage monthly revenue per user of mobile phone service.b

AprilJune 2002.cJune 2002.dJanuaryMarch 2002.edepending on type of user terminal.

K. Ishii / Telecommunications Policy 28 (2004) 4358 45
http://www.nttdocomo.ne.jp/http://www.japan-telecom.co.jp/http://www.kddi.com/http://www.kddi.com/http://www.japan-telecom.co.jp/http://www.nttdocomo.ne.jp/


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advanced functionality of the communication service. In fact, the survey data shows that only

0.4% of the population enjoy the 3G high-speed Internet services, although over 8 million peoplehave 3G-enabled handsets (Table 2).

1.3. Compatible websites

One of the technological reasons for the extraordinary success of i-mode is that NTT DoCoMo

adopted Compact HTML (C-HTML) as the language for i-mode websites, instead of the more

standard Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). C-HTML is a compatible subset of HTML for

terminals. NTT DoCoMos i-mode enables content providers to more easily enter the market than

WAP, because it is easier to create i-mode websites in C-HTML than in WAP. According to NTT

DoCoMos report, more than 50,000 websites are available with i-mode terminals. Because of the

extraordinary popularity of i-mode in Japan, other operators, J-Phone and KDDI, have alsoadopted a protocol which enables the viewing of i-mode websites.

1.4. Billing system

i-mode has a billing system through which content providers are able to focus on creating

quality content to attract more consumers. There are three kinds of charges for i-mode services:

the monthly subscription fee, the packet transmission fee, and the i-mode information fee. The

monthly subscription fee is 300 yen. The packet transmission charges are calculated according to

the volume of data transmitted, not the transmission time. The cost is based on the total number

of data packets sent and received, irrespective of the connection time. Each data packet (128bytes) costs 0.3 yen (0.025 cents). i-mode information charges are flat-rate monthly charges

varying from site to site, mainly ranging from 100 to 300 yen per month. The i-mode information

charges are billed by the operator on behalf of the information service providers.

2. Purpose of the study

The purpose of this article is to explore social and cultural factors in mobile Internet use in

Japan. Most previous research has examined mobile phones mainly from a technological or

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Table 2

Penetration rate of mobile Internet in the total population (for mobile phone users)

Penetration rate in the total population

(in mobile phone users) (%)

Average age of

users

Percentage of

male (%)

Mobile Internet (i-mode, etc.) 36.3 (52.8) 32.2 48.1

Mail use via mobile phones 36.6 (52.8) 32.2 48.1

Web access via mobile phone 33.5 (48.3) 31.1 52.6

PC Internet 38.8 35.7 56.2

Both mobile and PC Internet 23.6 33.0 53.5

3G mobile phone 0.4 (0.6) 43.4 80.0

Source: WIP Japan Survey (2002).



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economic perspective, whereas only a limited number of studies have focused on social and

cultural factors. However, telecommunication technology is not always accepted by customers

exactly like the government or operators intended. For example, personal handy phone system

(PHS) was not used by Japanese customers as the governments guidelines had expected, becauseusers perceived it differently than intended (Ishii, 1996). Neither technology nor Japanese

government policy can explain the widespread use of the mobile Internet in Japan where it is quite

uniquely used. Central concerns of this study are: (1) how is the mobile Internet used in Japan? (2)

What are the differences in mobile Internet and PC Internet use? (3) How do cultural factors

affect mobile Internet use in Japan?

3. Methods

In this article, the following two nationally representative surveys will be referenced: (1) TheWorld Internet Project (WIP) Japan Survey was conducted nationwide in Japan in November

2000, November 2001, and November 2003.4 The respondents were chosen from a probability

sample whose ages ranged from 12 to 74 years. The number of successful respondents in 2000,

2001, and 2002 are 2555, 2816, and 2333, respectively. (2) The Internet Use Survey was conducted

nationwide in Japan by the Internet Paradox Research Group in November 2001.5 The

respondents were also chosen from a probability sample whose ages ranged from 12 to 69 years.

The number of respondents was 1878a response rate of 62.6%.

4. Mobile Internet users

According to the WIP Japan Survey in 2002, 36.3% of the total population (52.8% of mobile

phone users) access the Internet via mobile phones, while 38.8% of the total population access the

Internet via PCs. As of December 2002, 82% of mobile phone users subscribed to Internet

provider systems (Telecommunications Carrier Association, 2003). However, the survey results

showed that the rate of Internet use via mobile phones is much lower (52.8%), because many

subscribers do not actually use the service. There is significant overlap between users of the PC

Internet and mobile Internet. 65% of mobile Internet users (23.6% of the total population) use

both PCs and mobile phones to access the Internet (Fig. 2).

The mobile Internet occupies 26.1% of the total time spent on the Internet. A weekly average

time spent on the mobile Internet is 43.6 min, while a weekly average time spent on the PCInternet is 123.4 min (Fig. 3).

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4 In the survey conducted in 2002, respondents were randomly split into two groups, and a different edition of

questionnaire was used for each group. Thus, some questions were asked only half of the total respondents (1164 and

1169). The WIP Japan Survey was conducted by a research group including the author. The study was designed to do

a comparative study for the World Internet Project and was financially supported by Communications Research

Laboratory. The research group published survey reports (The World Internet Project Japan, 2001, 2002, 2003). These

reports are available at http://media.asaka.toyo.ac.jp/wip/index.html.5The Internet Use Survey was conducted by Internet Paradox research group which included the author and

was headed by Prof. Yoshiaki Hashimoto (Hashimoto et al. (2002)).

http://media.asaka.toyo.ac.jp/wip/index.htmlhttp://media.asaka.toyo.ac.jp/wip/index.html


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The mobile Internet is especially popular among young people. Mobile Internet users have an

average age of 32.2 while PC Internet users are an average age of 35.7. Mobile Internet users are

more likely to be female than PC Internet users. Less than half (48.1%) of mobile Internet users

are male while 56.2% of PC Internet users are male.

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55.3

56.8

53.8

45

28.1

13.2

5.9

45.2

33.7

19.7

32

44.5

71.3

58.5

71.6

56

34.9

15.3

4.5

1.6

36.3

36.3

9.8

34.4

48.8

52.5

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Age

12-19

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60-69

70-74

Gender

Male

Female

Education

Middle High.

High School

Junior College

University or higher

PC Internet

Mobile Internet

Fig. 2. Penetration rates (%) of PC Internet and mobile Internet by demographic factors (Source: WIP Japan Survey,

2002).

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Web via PC WebviaMobile

Phone

Mail via PC Mail via

Total

Users

Mobile

Phone

Fig. 3. Average time spent on the Internet (minutes per week; Source: WIP Japan Survey, 2002).



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About half of all mobile Internet users used email (excluding non-Internet short messages) and

web browsing via mobile phones; the main usage of the mobile Internet is email. Looking at

Fig. 3, time spent on web browsing via mobile phone is only one third of that spent on email via

mobile phone.

4.1. Time and location

Selected Japanese media say that the unique usage of the mobile Internet is due to long

commuting time in Japan. Comparative time-diary survey results show that commuting time on

weekdays for those who work is greatest in Japan (NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute,

1995). However, contrary to popular belief, the long commuting time alone cannot explain the

high diffusion rate of the mobile Internet in Japan; a time-diary survey on Internet use in the

Internet Use Survey demonstrates that more than half mobile Internet use is from home, whereas

only a limited amount of time was spent during commuting hours ( Fig. 4). In other words, only

10% of total mobile Internet use was performed when the respondents were traveling on a train or

bus.

4.2. Browsing websites

PC web users (those who access at least one category of Internet sites via PCs) habitually access

an average of 8.64 categories of Internet sites, while mobile web users (those who access at least

one category of Internet sites via mobile phones) access an average of 3.58 websites. In other

words, websites visited via PCs are more varied and plentiful than those visited via mobile web

users.

Access rates for each category of websites via PC and via mobile phones are illustrated inTable 3. These rates are computed regarding each web user via the corresponding medium (PC or

mobile phone). A search engine (85.2%) is the most frequently visited site via PC, followed by

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Fig. 4. Location for mobile Internet use (%).



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weather information (50.5%) and transportation information/maps (49.9%), while a search

engine (45.3%) is also the top category via mobile phones, followed by weather (38.0%) and

music/concert information (29.0%). Rates are generally higher for PC than for mobile phones

except for fortune telling (23.5%) and matchmaking (8.0%). Overall, life style information is

preferred via mobile phones, whereas business information is preferred via PCs.

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Table 3

Access rates (%) of web sites via PC and mobile phone

Category PCa Mobile phoneb

Search engine 85.2 45.3

Transportation information/maps 49.9 29.6

News 50.4 25.6

Weather 38.8 38.0

PC 31.3 2.4

Online shopping 36.6 5.6

Information about other products 32.8 5.6

Sightseeing/traveling 41.9 9.9

Business/economy 33.1 5.8

Working 31.4 3.8

Education 18.2 1.8

Employment information 16.2 3.0

Government and public services 23.9 1.0

Political activities 7.8 1.2

Sports 35.0 20.5

Music/concerts information 33.8 29.0

Movie 28.9 11.9

TV program 29.9 12.3

Medical information 16.7 1.6

Health/fitness 13.8 2.0

Religion 3.1 0.8

Computer games 26.1 18.5

Adult 13.3 1.8

Personal homepages 41.3 10.1

Science 14.2 2.0Prize/gift 20.1 15.9

Cooking 16.2 5.0

Child rearing 6.3 1.2

Books 23.7 2.6

Gambling 7.9 4.2

Comics/animation 15.1 7.6

Fortune telling 16.7 23.5

Matchmaking 4.1 8.2

Average number of accessed web sites for those who have accessed at least one category 8.64 3.58

Source: WIP Japan Survey (2001).aRates are computed for respondents who accessed any category of websites via a PC.bRates are computed for respondents who accessed any category of websites via a mobile phone.



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4.3. Email via mobile phone

Email is used quite differently when accessed via PCs and mobile phones. Users exchange email

with fewer people via mobile phones than via PCs. They send email to an average of 5.5addressees via mobile phone, while they send email to an average of 8.6 addressees via PC ( Table 4).

Despite fewer addresses, more messages are sent via mobile phones than via PC; 25.9 emails are

sent via mobile phone in a week while 15.2 are sent via PC. These results suggest that more mail is

sent to a smaller number of intimate friends via mobile phones. Table 5 also shows that email is

more often sent to close friends who are frequently seen or family members via mobile phones

than via PCs.

4.4. Comparison of personal communication media

To communicate with friends in daily life, we use a wide array of personal communicationmedia such as a fixed-line telephone, a mobile phone (voice), email via mobile phone, email via

PC, a facsimile, and post mail. To compare the usage and functions of these media, detailed

questions were asked of respondents in the Internet Use Survey (Hashimoto, Kimura, Ishii, &

Kim 2002; Mobile Communication Research Group, 2002). Respondents were asked the names of

their 10 closest friends (or relatives, excluding immediate family members) who did not live with

them, and asked (1) gender and age of each friend (or relative), (2) media by which they usually

communicate with each friend, (3) frequency of face-to-face contact with each friend, and (4)

travel time to each friend from his/her home by normal transportation mode. Table 6 summarizes

the results.

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Table 4

Number of emails and email addressees

Mobile phone PC

Number of emails sent in a week 21.7 14.4

Number of email addressees 7.1 8.3

Source: WIP Japan Survey 2002.

Table 5

Email addressee to whom email is most often sent (single answer)

Mobile phone (%) PC (%)

Friends whom you usually see 58.4 35.1

Friends whom you do not usually see 42.0 49.6

Boy friends/girl friends 14.1 5.8

Spouse 35.5 9.7

Family members 29.9 13.1

People who are working in your office 25.4 31.6

People whom you contact for business 10.8 31.6

Others 3.4 10.6

Source: WIP Japan Survey (2002).



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Table 6

Characteristics of friends by communication media

Communication

media with friends

Total number of

friends

Rate of the

same gender

(%)

Average of

absolute

difference of age

Average frequency of fac

to-face communication

with the corresponding

friend in a week

Fixed-line telephone 5472 82.6 7.2 1.5

Mobile phone 3476 78.8 4.6 1.8

Mail via mobile

phone

1904 78.9 2.9 2.2

Mail via PC 681 80.2 4.1 1.2

Chat on the Internet 27 74.1 3.7 2.5

Fax 228 81.8 7.6 0.9

Letter 555 83.6 6.3 1.0

Source: Internet Use Survey.


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* The respondents most frequently see friends or relatives with whom they communicate through

email via mobile phone (2.2 times per week), whereas they less frequently see friends or relatives

with whom they communicate by email via PC (1.2 times per week).* Friends or relatives with whom they communicate by email via mobile phone live in a

geographically closer location (77.6 min of travel time) than those with whom they

communicate by PC mail (100.4 min).* Ages of friends (or relatives) communicating by email via mobile phone are closer to the

respondents age, than if communicating via PC mail.

These results demonstrate that among the wide array of personal communication media, the

mobile Internet is the medium used to communicate with the closest friends or relatives whom the

respondents most often see face to face. Iwata (2002) also found that frequency of use of mobile

phones and mobile mail is positively correlated to the number of close friends while frequency of

use of PC mail is not correlated to the number of close friends. They show that the PC Internet

and the mobile Internet contrast in terms of communication media; PC email is exchanged with

psychologically and geographically distant friends, whereas mobile email is exchanged with more

intimate friends.

5. Discussiontechnology, policy, and user needs

The history of the mobile Internet in Japan shows that user needs have promoted the mobile

Internet in Japan, rather than technology or policy. As shown previously, basic technology (C-

HTML) for i-mode is not advanced but simple. Most users connect their mobile phones to the

Internet only at 28,000 bps. Quicker connection by the 3G (third generation) mobile phone serviceis not yet popular (The World Internet Project Japan, 2003). Government policy has emphasized

technological development of mobile phone systems such as PHS and IMT-2000, whereas the

policy has never given much attention to user needs. In the case of i-mode, NTT DoCoMo did not

push new technology but focused on services rather than selling technology (Steinbock, 2003).

The government had to introduce new regulations to protect against serious problems with the

mobile Internet.

Spam mail is a more serious problem for mobile phone users than for PC users in Japan,

because the cost of receiving email is much higher for mobile phones (see Table 1). According to a

news report, of an average 950 million email messages a day handled by NTT DoCoMo in

October 2001, about 800 million were addressed to non-existent receivers.6 Legislation to crack

down on junk email was put into effect in 2002. However, according to a survey conducted by

NTT DoCoMo, the ratio of illegal to legal e-mail ads remained unchanged, indicating that the

new legislation is too weak to fight spam.7

The number of crimes involving Internet matchmaking sites soared in 2002. A report issued by

the National Police Agency (NPA) uncovered a total of 1,731 incidents involving Internet dating

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6The Japan Times Online, December 26,2002 (retrieved from http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?

nn20021226b6.htm).7The Japan Times Online, September 25,2002 (retrieved from http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?

nn20020925a8.htm).

http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20021226b6.htmhttp://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20021226b6.htmhttp://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20020925a8.htmhttp://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20020925a8.htmhttp://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20020925a8.htmhttp://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20020925a8.htmhttp://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20021226b6.htmhttp://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20021226b6.htm


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sites in 2002.8 The report also showed that about 97 percent of the people who accessed the sites

did so through mobile phones. In an effort to curb the number of crimes involving the sites, the

Diet enacted the Internet matchmaking site regulation law in June 2003.

6. Unique communication patterns in Japan

Internet-enabled phones, such as WAP (Wireless Access Protocol), are not yet accepted in other

countries as much as in Japan. Why was the mobile Internet accepted so early in Japan? One of

the key factors is the unique communication pattern among Japanese people.

6.1. Group-oriented nationality

Most previous studies on the effects of the Internet found a negative influence of Internet use onsociability. Greater use of the Internet was associated with a decline in users communication with

family members in the household, and a decline in the size of their social circle (Kraut et al., 1998);

the more time Internet users spent on the Internet, the less time they shared at meals and watching

TV with family members (Weng, 2002).

As opposed to studies on the PC Internet undertaken elsewhere, investigations in Japan found

that mobile media users are more active in personal communications. Pager and PHS users are

more active in personal communication than non-users (Nakamura, 1997). Mobile phone users

are more sociable and more interested in the latest fashion than non-users (Hashimoto et al.,

2000). Use of email via mobile phones enhances sociability among university students, both for

women and men (Tsuji & Mikami, 2001).

The WIP Japan Survey results are consistent with these previous studies on mobile media usersin Japan. Table 7 shows that the PC Internet and the mobile Internet contrast in terms of effects

on sociability, such as time spent with family and time spent with friends. Results of regression

analyses show that the mobile Internet has a significantly positive effect on amount of time spent

with friends, whereas the PC Internet has a significantly positive effect on time spent with family.

In other words, contrary to previous studies in the United States and other countries, the Internet

has a positive effect on sociability in Japan. This is, however, nuanced, with the PC Internet

promoting socializing with family members while the mobile Internet appears to promote

socializing with friends.

6.2. From beru-tomo (pager friend) to Sha-mail (picture mail)

In the mid-1990s, it was very common for Japanese high school students to have chats with

their distant friends called beru-tomo (pager friends) using pagers. Beru-tomo did not know eachothers names and had never met, but they constantly exchanged messages by pagers every day,

reporting their daily news and feelings to each other. According to Nakamura (1997), 17% of high

school students had beru-tomo in 1996. When personal handy phone (PHS) and mobile phonesbecame more popular than pagers, they switched to these new media in order to conduct virtual

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8Mainichi Daily News, February 6, 2003.



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chats with meru-tomo (email friends) using email. Tsuji and Mikami (2001) reported that 14%of university students in Tokyo and Osaka had meru-tomo in 2001. According to a nationally

representative survey in 2001, 7.2% of mobile email users had a virtual email friend ( Mobile

Communication Research Group, 2002).

These virtual relationships (beru-tomo and meru-tomo) are unique in that they do not disclose

objective self (name, address, etc.) but disclose only their subjective self (emotional state) infrequent messages. An example of the Japanese inclination to disclose emotional states is seen in

frequent use of picture characters in email over mobile phones. Picture characters are non-

standard characters like smiley in English. They are specially designed for email via mobile

phones by the operators. Most of the characters are used to visually express emotion in email (Fig. 5).

The success of Sha-mail (picture mail via mobile phone terminal) is also related to thepreference for emotional communication through the mobile Internet between close friends

among young Japanese people. Picture mail is a service that sends photo images taken by a built-

in digital camera in the mobile phone terminal to another terminal. When J-Phone started Sha-

mail service in 2000, it was the first image transmission service in the mobile communications

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Table 7

Regression analysis of life time use (regression coefficients)

Dependent variable

Independent variable Time spent with family (min) Time spent with friends (min)

Internet use by PC (min) 0.395 0.009

Internet use by mobile phone (min) 0.036 0.447

Gender (M 0; F 1) 472.6 23.4

Age 17.0 8.4

Educationa 325.9 111.0

Marriage (yes=1, no=0) 567.2 433.0

po0:05; po0:01; po0:001:aUniversity or higher =1; otherwise=0.

Fig. 5. Examples of email picture characters.



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industry. Since then, the number has increased rapidly and exceeded 4 million in March 2002.

Following the success of Sha-mail, the other major companies, KDD and NTT DoCoMo, also

started picture mail services in 2002. A reason for the success of picture mail is that young

Japanese enjoy communicating and sharing memories on the spot.

A similar pattern was also found in a study of personal websites. A content analysis was carried

out using personal web pages randomly selected from Japanese, English, and Chinese language

sites located by the popular search engine Yahoo! (Ishii, Hashimoto, Mikami, Tsuji, & Mori,

2000; Ishii, 2000). The study found that Japanese websites showed the lowest level of self-

disclosure of objective personal information such as name and gender, but the highest level of

subjective self-disclosure such as a diary and essays (Table 8). A striking result is thatapproximately a quarter of Japanese sites had diaries.

These patterns reflect a conflicting feeling that young Japanese seek to enjoy communication by

expressing personal feelings but want to avoid direct contact with friends. Tsuji (1996) likened the

paradoxical attitude of young Japanese to Shoepenhauers hedgehog dilemma, inferring that

they hurt each other in close relationships while they are frozen in distant relationships. Pagers

and email are convenient media for people with such a paradoxical attitude, because using these

media, they can communicate personal feelings while avoiding face to face contact as well as

concealing their objective self. Ambivalent feelings about serious relationships with friends may be

a key to understanding the unique pattern of Japanese mobile use.

7. Conclusions

In Japan, the mobile Internet has grown more rapidly than the PC Internet. Mobile phones

have evolved from just voice-only devices to personal digital assistants with digital cameras, GPS,

clocks, alarms, calendars, mailers, and Internet browsers. By contrast, handheld PCs and PDAs

are not popular mobile Internet devices in Japan. Compared to the high penetration rate of the

mobile Internet, the rate of PC Internet use is relatively low (38.8%). The point is that the

Japanese mobile Internet has evolved from mobile phones and pagers (e.g., pager friends), rather

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Table 8

Comparison of degree of self-disclosure in personal homepages among three languages located on Yahoo

Language

Japanese US English Chinese Probability for F statistics

N 293 167 164

Namea 45.1% 58.6% 58.6%

Gender 18.2% 24.3% 43.8%

Age 41.6% 31.5% 54.6%

Home address 1.4% 17.9% 5.7%

Diary 23.5% 8.3% 3.7%

Essay 67.1% 36.9% 21.5%

po0:001; po0:01:aBoth surname and first name.



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than from PCs. The mobile Internet, therefore, is not an extension or substitute for the PC

Internet in Japan.

According to the survey results, the mobile Internet serves distinctly different social functions

from the PC Internet. The mobile Internet has positive effects on sociability with friends, while thePC Internet does not have such effects. Email via a mobile phone is exchanged mainly with close

friends or family, whereas email via a PC is exchanged with business colleagues. These results

suggest that PC diverge in terms of social functions; in other words, mobile Internet use has more

in common with time-enhancing home appliances such as the telephone, while PC Internet use has

more in common with the time-displacing technology of TV (Suzuki, Hashimoto, & Ishii, 1997;

Institute of Socio-Information and Communication Studies, 2001; Robinson, Kestbaum,

Neustadl, & Alvarez, 2000).

The experiences in Japan show that neither technological advantages nor telecommunication

policy promote a new type of telecommunication service. Japanese experience after 1995

demonstrates that user needs have brought about the high penetration rate and unique usagepatterns (e.g., beru-tomo and picture mail) of the mobile Internet in Japan. The Japanese

government has placed political importance more on broadband than on mobile phones ( Ishii,

2003).

A study in Korea also shows that mobile phone users have more social meetings and parties

than non-users, suggesting that the characteristics of group-oriented nationality affect usage of

the mobile phone (Sung, 2002). The study suggests some cultural factors that affect mobile phone

uses in Korea, which has a relatively similar cultural background to Japan in group-oriented

nationality. It is difficult to statistically identify cultural effects, but some unique characteristics

related to group-oriented nationality, which is common in East Asia, may explain the high

penetration rate of mobile communication in these two countries.

This study shows that the mobile Internet may develop in a diverse manner throughout theworld, depending on local culture and customs. Despite globalization of the telecommunications

business, some human behavior is still local, so in designing telecommunications services, cultural

differences in telecommunication uses should be considered. Consequently, it is important to

understand how cultural factors affect telecommunication behaviors including mobile Internet

use. Future cross-cultural studies are needed to more systematically explore cultural influences on

a broader range of telecommunication behaviors.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Profs. Shunji Mikami, Hiroaki Yoshii, and Yoshiaki Hashimoto

for helpful support in WIP Japan and Internet Paradox research groups.

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