Japan Also Enters 5G Era Starting Today... Tepid Start Due to Tokyo Olympics Postponement

[Asia Economy Reporter Joselgina] Japan's 5G mobile communication strategy, which aimed to capitalize on the Tokyo Olympics boom, is stumbling from the start. It lags nearly a year behind South Korea, which holds the 'world's first' title, and with the decision to postpone the Olympics just before commercialization, the strategy to secure future 5G market leadership through the Tokyo Olympics has also fallen apart.

According to the industry on the 25th, Japan's top mobile carrier NTT Docomo will start 5G service from this day. The second-ranked carrier KDDI's mobile brand AU will begin commercialization from the next day, the 26th, and SoftBank will start from the 27th. Local media reported that the 5G era, characterized by ultra-high speed and large capacity, has officially begun in Japan as well.

However, the service area is limited. As of the end of March, the facilities and locations where NTT Docomo's 5G service is available amount to about 150 nationwide, including Olympic venues. The plan was to expand the service to all prefectures nationwide from June, just before the Tokyo Olympics, after commercialization this month.

So far, Japan's telecom industry has been refining its 5G strategy to coincide with the Tokyo Olympics. Since they were a step late in commercialization, the plan was to showcase Japan's 5G services such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and autonomous driving to the world through the Olympic stage to secure market leadership. Previously, South Korea set an example by demonstrating 5G trial services during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, establishing itself as a leading country and continuing its path to the world's first commercialization. However, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially announced on the 24th (local time) the one-year postponement of the Tokyo Olympics just before commercialization, it was evaluated that not only the Olympic boom was lost but also the momentum for 5G expansion was lost.

For the telecom industry, which had been competing to bring forward the commercialization date, this is inevitably a disappointing point. Major Japanese media such as Nihon Keizai Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun did not separately cover the 5G commercialization news in their print editions on this day.

Smartphone manufacturers, who were expected to compete fiercely for 5G devices by targeting Apple's absence, also appeared somewhat subdued. Japanese Sharp has already released its first 5G smartphone, the AQUOS R5G, in line with 5G commercialization before the Olympics. Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics were also planning to launch the Galaxy S20 series and V60 ThinQ 5G locally.

Especially since Apple, which leads the Japanese market, has not yet released a 5G smartphone, these companies were seen as having an opportunity to expand their market share by pioneering the 5G market. According to Japan's market research firm Multimedia Research Institute (MMRI), Apple's market share (based on shipments) in the Japanese smartphone market last year reached 47.4%, followed by Sharp (13%) and Samsung Electronics (9.1%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.