Japan’s Advertising Spending Drops for First Time Since 2011

Dentsū, Japan’s leading advertising company, announced that the nation’s total 2020 advertising expenditures fell 11.2% from 2019 to ¥6.16 trillion. This was the first decline since 2011, the year of the Great East Japan Earthquake.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a great many cancelled or postponed events and sales campaigns, resulting in a sales drop comparable to the 11.5% fall in 2009 after the global financial crisis.

Total advertising expenditures were divided into three categories: the four mass media outlets of TV, radio, magazines, and newspapers; Internet advertising; and promotional media for events. Of those three, mass media expenditures fell for the sixth consecutive year, declining 13.6% year on year to ¥2.25 trillion. This broke down to an 11.0% drop to ¥1.66 trillion for television, a 15.4% decrease to ¥0.11 trillion for radio, a fall of 27.0% to ¥0.12 trillion for magazines, and a decline of 18.9% to ¥0.37 trillion for newspapers.

On the other hand, Internet advertising expenditures grew 5.9% year on year to a strong ¥2.23 trillion. Although this sector was hit by the slump in consumption and decrease in advertising due to the pandemic, it recovered more quickly than other media.

The majority of Internet advertising is targeted, based on users’ browsing and search history. This rose by 9.7% to ¥1.46 trillion, driven by the increased usage of social media and video streaming services by homebound consumers.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo: A digital ad promoting social distancing to prevent COVID-19 spread, seen December 2020 in Tokyo’s Shinjuku. © Jiji.)