Japan is one of the world’s hottest markets for IP telephony. By September 2007 Japan had over 15 million VoIP customers and Softbank’s Yahoo! Japan had the majority of these. Softbank claimed to be the biggest VoIP operator in the world. NTT Corp, the fixed-line incumbent, had been justifiably worried about VoIP, but had begun to embrace a strong IP phone strategy of its own. The strategy was certainly paying off as the giant operator vigorously engaged the market. Videophones such as the one developed by NTT in mid-2004 could attract more VoIP subscribers. This report examines the growth of Japanese IP telephony current developments, as well as regulatory issues involving VoIP.
