By May of 2022, Japan had over 48 million subscribers to video streaming platforms. Almost half of the market share belonged to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Both U.S.-based services entered the Japanese market in 2015, DAZN followed in 2016, then Disney in 2019.
According to a survey conducted in Japan during fiscal year 2021, Netflix was used by 39.5 percent of people aged 20 to 29 years old.
Netflix in Japan has three price tiers which are in a similar range to those offered outside Japan (note: all our prices below include consumption tax). While all plans offer unlimited viewing, the cheaper packages have some restrictions.
The word for Netflix in Japanese is Nettofurikkusu (ネットフリックス) and the abbreviated word is Netofuri (ネトフリ).
Switch to another VPN server
Netflix is constantly scanning for suspicious activity, so something about your old server probably alerted it. You might be sharing it with too many users at once or using a blacklisted VPN server. All you need to do is load your VPN's location list and connect to another Japanese server.
This is because Netflix has to comply with copyright laws and distribution agreements in each country it operates in. So, if you want to access Japanese Netflix or any other Netflix library for that matter, you'll need to use a VPN to connect to a server in the country you want to access.
Amazon Prime Video – Japan's Most Popular Streaming Platform
According to a data report by Media Partners Asia, by 2021 Prime Video secured more than 15 million monthly active users and 26% of watch time. Netflix, which had 10% of video streaming minutes and 6 million subscribers, followed behind.
Amazon Leads Netflix, Disney+ in Japan's Expanding Streaming Market, Study Shows. A new research report indicates Prime Video has approximately 14.6 million subscribers in Japan, compared to 6 million for Netflix and 1.8 million for Disney+.
Subtitles don't display for some languages
The Netflix app may not support subtitles for some languages including Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Romanian, or Vietnamese on devices manufactured before 2014, but most newer devices do support them.
As of 2022, Netflix is streaming in over 190 countries, not including China, Crimea, North Korea, Russia or Syria.
The other three countries, by contrast, are blocked off because of US sanctions. According to Netflix, US sanctions on North Korea, Syria, and Russian-controlled Crimea prevent it from doing business there. This speaks to the degree of international opprobrium that has been heaped on Russia for its Ukraine campaign.
Despite the United States being Netflix's leading market in terms of subscriber numbers, Australia and the United Kingdom had higher penetration rates.
Biggest Netflix libraries in the world 2023
Industry data revealed that Slovakia had the most extensive Netflix media library worldwide as of March 2023, with over 8,400 titles available on the platform. Interestingly, the top 10 ranking was spearheaded by European countries.
Although most of the world has access to Netflix, the service is still unavailable in China. So if you want access to your home Netflix library, you must use a VPN.
Netflix viewers will dip in 2023 thanks to paid sharing—which could cause a long-term Gen Z problem. The news: Netflix will lose viewers for the second consecutive year in 2023, according to our new forecast update. The number of viewers is expected to decrease by 0.5% to 170.6 million.
Japan's Netflix library contains more top-quality TV and film content than anywhere else in the world, according to a study by Uswitch.
Disney Plus enjoyed significant success in terms of individual subscribers in Australia during its initial launch period, attracting nearly three million subscribers in late 2020 and nearly equalling Amazon Prime subscriber numbers. Elsewhere, Netflix had 14.17 million subscribers and Foxtel had 7.75 million.
North of 30 million monthly users access Netflix from countries where it doesn't even offer service — including 21.6 million in China — if recent estimates from a British online-research firm are to be believed.
Netflix generated a monthly app revenue of 1.41 million U.S. dollars in Japan in December 2022. The highest result during that year was recorded in July, when the revenue reached 1.56 million dollars. The subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service has been active in the Japanese market since September 2015.
The bottom line is that Netflix may block you when using a VPN, but you will not get into any trouble for trying, you will not get your Netflix account canceled, and it is most certainly not in any way illegal! A lot of VPN services fail to unblock Netflix, so it's important to choose the right service.
Does Netflix ban VPN users? No, Netflix does not ban users who use a VPN. However, you won't be able to watch anything if Netflix detects that you're using a VPN.
A proxy server can help you change your Netflix country by routing your traffic through a third-party server before connecting to Netflix. Like with a VPN, a proxy server hides your IP address and tricks Netflix into thinking you're located in the country where the proxy server is based.