Japan Video Market 2026:
VOD, Digital Video Content and Video Ad Market Size

Japan's video market in numbers

Each source uses its own scope and method, so the rows cannot be added together. Checked November 2026.

Video on demand (VOD) market

According to GEM Partners, Japan's VOD market reached ¥674.0 billion in 2025, up 13.6% year on year, and is forecast to reach ¥895.3 billion in 2030. Subscription services (SVOD) were about ¥601.7 billion, up 14.3%. GEM Partners attributes the growth mainly to price increases and to people subscribing to more services, rather than to new users.

By service, Netflix led SVOD for the 7th year in a row with a 27.1% share in 2025, followed by U-NEXT (17.1%) and Prime Video (12.1%), as reported by Web Tantousha Forum from GEM Partners' data. Transactional VOD (TVOD) and download-to-own (EST) are included in the total, but separate figures are not published in the free summary.

Digital video content market

There is no single official "digital video content" figure for Japan. The closest broad measure is the Digital Content Association of Japan (DCAJ) White Paper. It puts Japan's content industry at ¥14.0288 trillion in 2024 (103.1% YoY), of which digital content was ¥11.0702 trillion, or 78.9%. The video-only breakdown is in the paid edition of the White Paper and is not public, so we do not quote it here.

For practical planning, VOD revenue (viewers paying) and video ad spend (advertisers paying) are the two published measures that matter most.

Video advertising market

Video is the fastest-growing part of Japan's ad spend. Internet video ads were ¥1.0275 trillion in 2025 (121.8% YoY), passing ¥1 trillion for the first time, and are forecast at ¥1.1783 trillion in 2026 (CARTA HOLDINGS, Dentsu, Dentsu Digital and Septeni). In-stream and out-stream are almost evenly split (¥524.6 billion and ¥502.9 billion).

Inside that, vertical video ads on TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are growing faster still: ¥204.9 billion in 2025 (155.9% YoY), forecast to reach ¥564.8 billion by 2029 (CyberAgent and Digital InFact). For the full ad spend picture, see Japan ad spend statistics.

Video analytics and video-as-a-service (VaaS): what is known

We could not find an official or industry-association statistic for Japan's video analytics market (AI video analysis, for example in security and retail) or for video-as-a-service (cloud video platforms and video APIs). Figures that appear online for these segments come from paid reports by global research firms. Their definitions differ, and their estimates for the same year can vary by several times.

If you need a number for these segments, check the report's definition (does it include hardware? enterprise video conferencing?) and its method before you use it. We do not publish an estimate here because we cannot verify one.

What this means for brands entering Japan

• Japanese viewers pay for video and watch a lot of it: VOD spending is rising even without many new subscribers.
• Ad money is following attention to short, vertical, mobile video. Vertical video is the fastest-growing ad category we track.
• To compete there, you need video made for Japanese viewers: Japanese talent, telop and hooks, not translated global spots. See localizing vertical video ads for Japan.

Summary

• VOD: ¥674.0 billion in 2025, heading for ¥895.3 billion in 2030.
• Video ads: over ¥1 trillion, with vertical video ads at ¥204.9 billion and growing about 56% a year.
• Content industry: ¥14.0 trillion, almost 80% digital.
• Video analytics and VaaS: no reliable public figure for Japan.