In a country known for its fads that usually spread to the rest of Asia and then on to the West, the Japanese appear to be rather taken by filesharing. In Japan, the number of people using filesharing has jumped 180% in a little over a year, according to a survey analyzing the number of files downloaded.

The number of people in Japan sharing music and movies is at an all-time high. This increase refers to filesharing involving authorized media. In June 2006, the number of Internet users using filesharing with authorized media was 3.6%; in September 2007 the figure leaped to 9.6%.

Audio files are the most common choice of download in Japan, amounting to about 211 file per user. Winny is the most popular filesharing program in Japan, closely followed by Limewire and WinMX. BitTorrent hasn’t quite taken off in Japan, accounting for just 7.4% of all downloads.

The next step for Japan will likely be an explosion in the use of BitTorrent. While the current filesharing programs used in Japan are good, they can’t compare to BitTorrent. All the Japanese need is a little push in the right direction.

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