• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, March 1, 2022

Japan’s ad economy showed a strong recovery in 2021 == rising 10.4% to 6.8 trillion yen, or about $59 billion, according to estimates released this morning by Dentsu.

“This increase was supported by the solid growth of internet advertising expenditures amid efforts to promote a digital transformation of Japanese society, as well as the weakening impact in the second half of the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has continued since 2020,” the Tokyo-based agency holding company said in a statement.

Dentsu estimates internet ad spending in Japan expanded at twice the rate of overall media, rising 21.4% to 2.7 trillion yen, adding that digital ad spending on “traditional media companies surpassed the 100 billion yen mark for the first time.”