Japan
Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
Japan
Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
Key Findings
National
Our Japanese users see the fastest broadband speeds on NURO Hikari’s network
NURO Hikari wins both Download Speed and Upload Speed awards with scores of 164.7Mbps and 98.9Mbps, respectively. Biglobe Hikari is the joint runner-up for both categories — sharing the spot with J:COM for Download Speed and with au for Upload Speed.
J:COM triumphs for Consistent Quality
J:COM wins Consistent Quality outright with a score of 83.8%, beating NURO Hikari by one percentage point. These scores represent the percentage of users’ tests that have met the minimum recommended performance thresholds to watch HD video, complete group video conference calls and play games.
NURO Hikari leads for Reliability Experience
NURO Hikari has the most reliable broadband network in Japan – the internet provider wins the Reliability Experience award with a score of 740 points on a 100-1000 scale, 25 points ahead of Biglobe Hikari. Opensignal’s Reliability Experience metric measures how consistently a household can connect to the internet and successfully complete tasks like streaming video or browsing. It assesses the entire user experience, from initial connection to task completion.
au comes first in all FWA categories, either outright or jointly
In assessing the experience among our users with FWA in Japan, au wins four awards outright and one jointly, as it shares Upload Speed with SoftBank. For Download Speed, au triumphs with average speeds clocking in at 71.6Mbps. It also commands sizable winning margins over its competitors for Consistent Quality and Reliability Experience.
NURO Hikari wins the most awards across Japan’s cities
NURO Hikari wins 6 awards outright and 14 jointly out of 25 available across the five analyzed cities in Japan. The ISP triumphs for both Download Speed and Upload Speed in Sapporo, Tokyo and Yokohama. Biglobe Hikari is the sole winner for Consistent Quality and Reliability Experience in Tokyo. Meanwhile, two regional ISPs secure awards outright in their respective areas of operations — Commufa Hikari for Consistent Quality in Nagoya and eo Hikari Net for Reliability Experience in Osaka.
Market Overview
In this report Opensignal has examined real-world data from our Japan fixed broadband users. To reflect the varying ways in which fixed broadband is used we include five different measures of user experience: Consistent Quality, Download Speed, Upload Speed, Video Experience and Reliability Experience. Together, these measures capture the wide range of ways households use broadband services, ranging from remote work and education to video streaming and gaming. Our results for Japan’s ISPs include a blend of different technologies e.g. cable, FTTH, FWA, or xDSL — but do not include readings from Wi-Fi hotspots.
Consumers often face decisions about choosing specific broadband access technologies offered by their local providers. That is why we have further divided our comparisons into two sections: Wireline Experience — which looks at the experience of our users with wired broadband — and FWA Experience, which examines the experience with Fixed Wireless Access.
Japan’s fixed broadband market has long been one of the most developed in the world. The dominant technology continues to be fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) or Fibre LAN — while the presence of cable or xDSL is slowly fading away in the market. However, 5G FWA deployments are gaining momentum — Japan has one of the highest shares of FWA subscriptions in total fixed broadband among the OECD markets. Mobile operators drive 5G FWA deployment but they also have a strong position in the fiber segment. NTT is the dominant player in the fixed broadband market, controlling more than 43% according to the Telegeography — serving its FLET’S Hikari offering to consumers through ecosystem of intermediary partners. SoftBank is the second most notable ISP in Japan, with more than 15% of the fixed broadband market share, while au controls 10%.
Nationally, we compare user experience on six main ISPs in Japan — au, Biglobe Hikari, FLET’s Hikari, J:COM, SoftBank and NURO Hikari. We also look at the experience on FWA services delivered by au, NTT docomo and SoftBank. The analysis period covers their performance over 90 days starting on March 1, 2025, to see how these ISPs fared. We also measured the experience of our fixed broadband users across 5 major Japanese cities — Nagoya, Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo and Yokohama — with additional major regional players included.
Plan characteristics — for example, speed tiers or data caps — vary greatly by provider and the dispersion of the plan mix will affect the average experience result. Opensignal’s measurements capture users’ experience, regardless of the plan that they have purchased from their provider. This report analyzes the real-world situation across all users’ plans. A user’s fixed broadband experience is also affected by the router they are using.
“NURO Hikari” was previously referred to as “So-net Hikari/NURO Hikari” in this report — the naming was changed after publication. See the following footnote for further details on which services are included under each service name in the report.
National Fixed Broadband Experience
Category description:
The experience of our users across wired methods of broadband access delivery i.e. Fiber, xDSL, Cable (HFC).
In the Wireline Experience contest in Japan, NURO Hikari leads the award count at this time with three awards won outright and one jointly. Our fixed broadband users on this network enjoy the fastest speeds and the most reliable service among ISPs in Japan, while NURO Hikari also shares the winners’ podium for Video Experience with Biglobe Hikari.
J:COM is the sole winner for Consistent Quality with a score of 83.8%, one percentage point ahead of second-placed NURO Hikari.
In the FWA Experience category, au comes first in all five awards. It wins four awards outright — Consistent Quality, Download Speed, Reliability Experience and Video Experience — with impressive leads over its competitors in the first three categories. On top of this, au shares Upload Speed with SoftBank.
Definitions
Broadband Consistent Quality measures how often a network, from the perspective of a single device once connectivity is established, meets the requirements for common applications. Broadband Consistent Quality uses six key performance indicators: download and upload speeds, latency, jitter, packet loss, and time to first byte, setting thresholds appropriate for individual rather than multiple device usage. Metrics represent the percentage of users’ tests meeting these performance thresholds to support activities like watching HD video, completing group video calls, and gaming across all hours of the day.
Definitions
Measured in Mbps, Broadband Download Speed represents the typical everyday speeds a user experiences across a provider’s network.
Definitions
Measured in Mbps, Broadband Upload Speed measures the average upload speeds for each internet service provider observed by our users across their fixed networks. Typically, upload speeds are slower than download speeds, but this often depends on the technology used for broadband connections.
Definitions
Opensignal’s adaptive video experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's network. The metric measures users’ adaptive video experience using a Mean Opinion Score (MOS) approach inspired by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters of adaptive bitrate video streaming and the perceived video experience as reported by real people.
The videos tested are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers and include a wide selection of resolutions that dynamically match the network conditions, available bandwidth and device performance. Resolutions range from 144p to 2160p, which is also called 4K or UHD (Ultra High Definition). The model calculates a MOS score on a 0 to 100 scale by evaluating a number of parameters, including: the time to start playing the video, the quality of the video, the time playing each resolution, and the time spent re-buffering.
Definitions
Opensignal's Broadband Reliability Experience measures the ability of a household to connect to the internet and to successfully complete 'uninterrupted' tasks across multiple devices, encompassing work and recreational activities. While Reliability incorporates and expands upon elements akin to Broadband Consistent Quality, it uniquely includes assessments of initial connectivity and continuous completion of tasks, making it more comprehensive in scenarios involving multiple simultaneous connections.
Category description:
The experience of our users who are served by fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) where available from the provider, in comparison to other providers in the market.
Category description:
The experience of our users who are served by Fixed Wireless Access (FWA).
In the FWA Experience category, au comes first in all five awards. It wins four awards outright — Consistent Quality, Download Speed, Reliability Experience and Video Experience — with impressive leads over its competitors in the first three categories. On top of this, au shares Upload Speed with SoftBank.
Definitions
Broadband Consistent Quality measures how often a network, from the perspective of a single device once connectivity is established, meets the requirements for common applications. Broadband Consistent Quality uses six key performance indicators: download and upload speeds, latency, jitter, packet loss, and time to first byte, setting thresholds appropriate for individual rather than multiple device usage. Metrics represent the percentage of users’ tests meeting these performance thresholds to support activities like watching HD video, completing group video calls, and gaming across all hours of the day.
Definitions
Measured in Mbps, Broadband Download Speed represents the typical everyday speeds a user experiences across a provider’s network.
Definitions
Measured in Mbps, Broadband Upload Speed measures the average upload speeds for each internet service provider observed by our users across their fixed networks. Typically, upload speeds are slower than download speeds, but this often depends on the technology used for broadband connections.
Definitions
Opensignal’s adaptive video experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's network. The metric measures users’ adaptive video experience using a Mean Opinion Score (MOS) approach inspired by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters of adaptive bitrate video streaming and the perceived video experience as reported by real people.
The videos tested are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers and include a wide selection of resolutions that dynamically match the network conditions, available bandwidth and device performance. Resolutions range from 144p to 2160p, which is also called 4K or UHD (Ultra High Definition). The model calculates a MOS score on a 0 to 100 scale by evaluating a number of parameters, including: the time to start playing the video, the quality of the video, the time playing each resolution, and the time spent re-buffering.
Definitions
Opensignal's Broadband Reliability Experience measures the ability of a household to connect to the internet and to successfully complete 'uninterrupted' tasks across multiple devices, encompassing work and recreational activities. While Reliability incorporates and expands upon elements akin to Broadband Consistent Quality, it uniquely includes assessments of initial connectivity and continuous completion of tasks, making it more comprehensive in scenarios involving multiple simultaneous connections.
City Fixed Broadband Experience
Category description:
The experience of our users across wired methods of broadband access delivery i.e. Fiber, xDSL, Cable (HFC).
We analyzed five dimensions of experience of our fixed broadband users across the five included cities in Japan — Nagoya, Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo and Yokohama.
NURO Hikari ends with 6 awards outright and 14 jointly out of 25 available. Its subscribers enjoy the fastest download and upload speeds in Sapporo, Tokyo and Yokohama. In Sapporo and Yokohama, NURO Hikari wins in every category, either outright or jointly.
Biglobe Hikari is the sole winner for Consistent Quality and Reliability Experience in Tokyo, while it also shares seven more awards in Sapporo, Tokyo and Yokohama. J:COM shares the winners’ podium across the board six times, while SoftBank — twice.
For our fixed broadband experience analysis in Japanese cities, we included notable local players. Commufa Hikari comes first in every category in Nagoya — it takes home the Consistent Quality award while jointly winning all the other city awards in the city. In Osaka, eo Hikari Net wins Reliability Experience outright and shares the remaining awards — the ISP has entered a wholesale agreement with NTT West, which will significantly widen eo Hikari Net’s operational footprint. Asahi Net and Arteria UCOM Hikari both end with two joint wins each.
-
J-R
- Nagoya
- Osaka
-
S-Z
- Sapporo
- Tokyo
- Yokohama
in Nagoya
in Nagoya
in Nagoya
in Nagoya
in Nagoya
in Osaka
in Osaka
in Osaka
in Osaka
in Osaka
in Sapporo
in Sapporo
in Sapporo
in Sapporo
in Sapporo
in Tokyo
in Tokyo
in Tokyo
in Tokyo
in Tokyo
in Yokohama
in Yokohama
in Yokohama
in Yokohama
in Yokohama
Category description:
The experience of our users who are served by fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) where available from the provider, in comparison to other providers in the market.
Category description:
The experience of our users who are served by Fixed Wireless Access (FWA).
Related Analysis
Our Methodology
Collecting billions of individual measurements daily from over 100 million devices globally, Opensignal independently analyzes mobile and broadband user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
About Opensignal
Opensignal is the leading global provider of independent insights into consumers' connectivity experiences and choice of carrier. Our proprietary insights into mobile and broadband networks give operators the solutions they need to profitably compete and win, from executive level scorecards and public validation to pin-point level engineering analytics and consumer decision dynamics.
Check how your internet connection impacts your favorite apps with the Meteor App
Journalists, please retain the Opensignal logo and copyright
(© Opensignal Limited) information when using this image.
This image may not be used for any commercial purpose, including use in advertisements or other promotional content, without prior written consent.
Confidence Intervals
For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple operator winners.
In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars.
In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.
Why confidence intervals are vital in analyzing mobile network experience