This report is based on a presentation to an audience of industry specialists and Embassy staff in the Residence of His Excellency the German Ambassador to Japan in Tokyo and at a "First Tuesday" meeting to investment professionals at the Swiss Stock Exchange in Zurich and on many other occasions. Our report is regularly updated to take account of latest developments (the present version contains data as of March 14, 2005).

• Japans telecom industry - Introduction
  • How did Japan's telecom industry become one of the world's most competitive? (historic overview)
  • Overview of Japan's telecom industry, and the major industrial groups and their affiliation (Graphics: industry structure and recent transactions)
  • Size (sales in 2003/2004) of top five Japanese telecom groups (Graphics: sales of the major Japanese telecom groups, data for fiscal 2003/2004)
  • Comparing NTT and DoCoMo internationally: capitalization of NTT and DoCoMo compared to other global carriers (data: August 2004, comparing the market capitalization of NTT and NTT-DoCoMo with major global telecom service providers)
     
• Fixed line markets
  • Fixed line markets, overview, and trends
  • Fixed line market shares of the four top carriers (data for March 2004)
     
• Basic Phone Service
  • Market shares of the local and medium distance fixed line phone markets for top 5 carriers (data for Sept 2004)
  • Competition for basic subscription voice telephony (data: major competing groups and pricing competition overview)
  • Unbundling of fixed line services
  • KDDI: IP telephone over dry copper, KDDI Metal Plus
  • Competition for basic voice telephony (main competitors)
     
• Broad Band
  • Development of Japans broad band markets (history, present market situation, trends)
  • Market shares for ADSL subscriptions for the top five carriers (data for Sept 2004)
  • Market shares for Broad-band internet subscriptions for the top six ISPs (data for March 2004)
  • Internet access in Japan, subscriber numbers for FTTH, cable TV, DSL, Dial-up (ISDN), and mobile internet (logarithmic graphics, data for 2001-2004, projection for 2005)
  • Internet access in Japan, subscriber numbers for FTTH, cable TV, DSL, Dial-up (ISDN), and mobile internet (cumulative graphics: data for 2001-2004, projection for 2005)
  • Fixed line internet access in Japan, subscriber numbers for FTTH, CATV, DSL, Dial-up (ISDN) (cumulative graphics: data for 2001-2004)
  • Broad band internet access in Japan, subscriber numbers for FTTH, CATV, DSL (cumulative graphics: data for 2001-2004, projection to 2005)
     
• NTT's national optical IP Network
  • Outline, investment size, strategy
  • Projected numbers for FTTH lines provided by NTT (data for 2002-2010 (plan by NTT))
     
• KDDIs broad band business and strategy
  • KDDIs broad band services
     
• Softbank/YAHOO-BB's fixed line business and strategy
  • Softbank/YAHOO-BB's strategy
  • Softbank/YAHOO-BB's entering the FTTH market
     
• Wireless communications
  • Most important recent trends
     
• Wireless communications, Mobile phones, 3G, PHS
  • Wireless market reality in Tokyo
  • Japans mobile phone companies (2004)
  • Comparing 3G and 2G subscriber numbers for DoCoMo, Vodafone, KDDI, TuKa for different radio transmission technologies (PHS, PDC, 3G, CDMA2000-1x, CDMAone etc.) (data for 2002-2004)
  • Competition on Japans mobile phone market, total subscriber contract statistics for the major carriers, also showing the historic consolidation of the mobile communications industry (companies: Digital Phone Group, Digital TuKa, J-Phone, Vodafone, DDI-Pocket, DoCoMo-PHS, ASTEL, Cellular Group, IDO, KDDI/AU, DoCoMo) (subscriber numbers for the period 1998 to 2004, including historic data of merged operators)
  • Market shares (in terms of subscriber contracts) of the four major operators: DoCoMo, KDDI/AU, J-Phone/Vodafone, TuKa (Graphics: data for 1998-2004)
  • Focus on the KDDI/AU vs Vodafone battle (graph showing market shares 1998-2004)
  • Monthly subscriber number growth (net growth, net loss) for DoCoMo, KDDI/AU, Vodafone an TuKa (graph showing data 1998-2004)
  • Monthly subscriber number growth (net growth, net loss) for DoCoMo, KDDI/AU, Vodafone an TuKa (graph: focus on 2002-2004)
     
• Radio spectrum allocation for mobile communications in Japan
  • Policy and trends
  • Details of the spectrum allocation for the 800MHz, 1.5GHz and the 2GHz bands (data of Summer 2004, for the major carriers: DoCoMo, KDDI/AU, Vodafone, TuKa, and PHS and for the different radio transmission technologies: PDC, PHS, wCDMA, and CDMA2000 and TDD for testing, also shown are the bands allocated to MCA transmissions and MT2000 satellite transmissions)
     
• 3G and 3.5G in Japan
  • Waves of disruptive innovation
  • Overview of mobile 3G internet services including potential new market entrants from 2005 and beyond
  • 3G introduction in Japan (subscriber numbers for KDDI, DoCoMo-FOMA and Vodafone VGS, projection for new market entries for second wave, data: subscriber contract statistics for 2001-2006)
  • DoCoMo's "FOMA chasm" (mobile subscriber statistics for 2001-2004 with focus and discussion of the temporary plateau in DoCoMo's FOMA roll-out)
  • The first wave of Japans 3G roll-out (2001-2005) (Graphics: conversion rate from 2G to 3G and 2.5G for the 3G carriers in Japan, data for 2001-2004, plus indication of potential new entrants from 2005 and beyond)
  • Market shares of Japans 3G market (Graphics: market shares in terms of 3G subscription numbers, data for 2002-2004, logarithmic scale)
  • Market shares of Japans 3G market (Graphics: market shares in terms of 3G subscription numbers, data for 2002-2004, linear scale)
  • The first wave of Japans 3G roll-out (2001-2005) (table showing the 3G and planned or deployed 3.5G systems and upgrade path, and data transmission speeds for different carriers)
  • 3G imaging and video
  • 3G vs WiFi (hotspots)
  • Picture mail and GPS
     
• Mobile Phone Handset Markets
  • Japans mobile handset markets: key points
  • Japans handset market versus GSM markets - key differences
  • i-mode handsets, typical characteristics
  • Evolution of i-Mode phone displays 2000-2004
  • Example: DoCoMo 3G FOMA 900i series (2004)
  • Japans market for mobile phone (Graphics: handset sales per month, sales data for 2001-2004)
  • Market shares of camera phone makers (data for 2001 and 2002)
  • DoCoMo FOMA P2102V
  • Demonstration of GPS integration (KDDI/AU)
  • Biometric sensor integration, fingerprint sensor (DoCoMo F505i by Fujitsu)
     
• The "AU design project" as an example of how carriers in Japan deliver distinctive customer experience
  • Significance of the "AU design project"
  • KDDI/AU INFOBAR by SANYO, images, GPS integration, and overview of specifications
  • KDDIs Design Series continued: talby by mac newson ltd
  • Summary of "AU design project" 2001-2003 (table showing major results: talby, info.bar, ishicoro, GRAPPA 002, rotary, wearable, apollo and apollo02, with designer names)
     
• NOKIA mobile phones in Japan
  • NOKIA mobile phone sales in Japan, discussion and history
  • NOKIA 7600 phone sales in Japan (demonstration of display in major electronics store, with discussion)
  • NOKIA 6630 (on display at "Wireless Japan 2004")
  • NOKIA 7600 (on display at "Wireless Japan 2004")
     
• Mobile phone sales in Japan
  • Carriers competing face-to-face (images from a typical mobile phone store, demonstrating the competition of carriers via handset presentation)
  • Focus on the KDDI/AU (3G and 3.5G handsets) vs Vodafone handset competition (2G handsets)
  • Demonstration of a typical suburban KDDI/AU store, showing 3G and 3.5G handsets on display
  • Vodafone's Shibuya flagship store, including display of Vodafone global standard 3G phones (V801SA, V801SH)
     
• Mobile internet and i-mode
  • Why was i-mode born in Japan, not in Europe or USA
  • The i-mode eco-system (graphics showing the interplay of the integrated i-Mode value chain orchestrated by DoCoMo)
  • i-mode in a nutshell
  • Three groups compete for close to 70 million wireless internet users in Japan, including subscriber data for EZweb, i-mode and Vodafone Live! (previously Jsky), data for 1999-2004.
  • Comparing subscriber numbers, and market shares for i-mode, EZweb and Vodafone Live! (data for 1999-2004)
  • i-mode users: not just teenage girls (with i-mode user age and gender profile)
  • i-mode package usage statistics for receiving email, sending email, viewing imode web pages and total average package usage per subscriber per day
  • Page view statistics for two top ranking imode sites (data for page views/week in April-June 2001, July 2002, and February 2003)
     
• m-Commerce and m-Transactions
  • m-Commerce, m-Content and m-Advertising in Japan to reach US$ 10 billion by 2005 (data for 2001-2005)
  • i-Mode supports a range of m-Commerce and m-Transactions (overview of transaction classes)
  • i-mode premium sites - a billion dollar market, figure of combined revenue of i-mode premium pay sites (data for 1999-2003)
  • Around 50% of i-mode users subscribe to at least one pay site, figure with subscription data (data for 1999-2003)
     
• Wallet phones - making mobile phones an essential part of everyday life
  • Wallet phone introduction, introductory models (data July 2004)
  • Initial transaction partners for i-Mode/FeliCa (data July 2004)
  • What are wallet phones? Overview
  • Multi-application smartcards integrated into mobile phones (graphics showing the system overview)
  • P506iC wallet phone
  • i-mode-FeliCa wallet phone: P506iC screen image, demonstrating Edy ecash JAVA application
  • Wallet phone as an electronic door key
  • Mobile phones as train tickets
  • Mobile phones as event/concert e-ticket
  • Mobile phones as air ticket
  • Mobile phones as as e-cash for everyday supermarket payments, and in game parlors
     
• PHS
  • Japans competing three PHS services and networks (overview discussion)
  • Image: wireless reality in Tokyo, showing PHS data card in actual daily use
  • Overview, products and services
  • Recent transactions and trends
  • Sample products: DDI-Pocked Air-H data PC cards and USB connectors
  • DDI-Pocket data connection products samples
  • Data transmission units
  • Base station: example - SANYO station for 256kbps data
  • PHS data charges in comparison with 3G data charges (Graphics: PHS fees in comparison with 3G fees as a function of consumption for 0-700Mbyte/month)
  • PHS: competitive features and trends
  • Wristomo a mobile phone on your wrist, with data access (photographs)
     
• Fixed-mobile integration and mobile wireless LAN integration and wireless VOIP
  • 3G - wireless LAN and 3G - fixed line integration
  • DoCoMo "Passage Duple", combining FOMA 3G and wireless LAN, N900iL handset including photograph
    Wireless VOIP, discussion
     
• Mobile Communications: Japan vs the GSM world
  • Standardization practices in US, EU and Japan
  • People spend much more on mobile communications in Japan than in Europe (with ARPU data comparing DoCoMo and Vodafone D2 in Germany)
  • ARPU for different countries within VODAFONE, both subscription and prepay
  • Characteristics of the mobile communication industry Japan vs GSM (networks, handsets, marketing focus, brands, prepaid vs credit, ARPU, Churn, who is in the driving seat?, who are the 5000 Pound Gorillas?
  • Mobile communications business as the art of making the best of ever decreasing ARPUs (with ARPU data for the period 1994 - 2003)
  • Trends: Japan vs GSM(2G, wireless data, 2G + PHS, 3G, 4G, WIFI)
  • Japan vs the GSM world: tabular overview of the present situation and trends
  • What can Europe and US learn from Japan?