Global Search Engine Marketing: Fine-Tuning Your International Search Engine Results

4. Japan

Japan is the world’s second largest economy by nominal GDP (gross domestic product that has not been adjusted for inflation). In fact, Japan ranks second worldwide to the United States, meaning that the average person living in Japan enjoys very high living standards. According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the number of Japanese Internet users grew from around 48 million in 2000 to just shy of 100 million in March 2011, making Japan the fourth largest online market in the world. More than 78 percent of Japan’s 126.8 million inhabitants were online by then, which is nearly three times the world average. Japanese is the fourth most used language on the Internet after English, Chinese, and Spanish. This is testament ...