Tokyo, July 02: Japan, once an Internet laggard, leapfrogged to No. 2 in the world in terms of broadband Internet connections in 2002, a research report showed on Tuesday, with competition bringing access fees down and spurring demand. Japan had 14.85 million broadband Internet home users at the end of 2002, second only to the United States, which had 18.5 million users, said Internet-publisher Impress Corp in its "Internet White Paper 2003."

Japan was a slow starter in the Internet revolution of the 1990s due to high fixed-line charges and a lack of competition in its telecoms market, long ruled by the former state-owned monopoly Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT).
But in the past year broadband use has taken off thanks to the success of Softbank Corp's Yahoo BB ADSL (assymetric digital subscriber line) business.
Japan's broadband population was higher than the rest of Asia combined, and increased five-fold on the previous year, when Japan had languished in fourth place behind the U.S., Europe, and ex-Japan Asia, with just 2.98 million users, Impress said. Bureau Report