TOKYO: Digital advertising expenditure in Japan rose 13% last year to top one trillion yen for the first time, while spending on traditional media dipped 0.4%, according to research from Dentsu.

Taken together, total spending rose 1.9% to 6.3 trillion yen ($55.8bn), thanks to a combination of global events like the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and more local ones like the G7 Summit held in Shima in May.

But the advertising and PR company had expected greater growth and pointed to a range of factors that had held the market back, including the performance of the economy and a sense of global insecurity related to conflicts and terrorism, Campaign Asia-Pacific reported.

Digital spending now accounts for almost 16% of all spending, with smartphone and video advertising leading the charge.

Within traditional media, print continued to suffer, with magazine ad revenues down 9% and newspaper spending down 4.4%. Television and radio, on the other hand, reported uplifts of 1.7% and 2.5% respectively.

Only nine of 21 industries saw increases in spending, with the 'Energy/Materials/Machinery' category, in particular, upping expenditure by 41% as power companies took advantage of the liberalisation of the energy market.

More modest increases were registered by home appliances and audio-visual equipment companies, up almost 10% – and within this category Dentsu noted a focus on hair styling and beauty appliances, refrigerators and 4K TVs – while the real estate and home improvement sector saw a 6.7% rise.

Several sectors reported sharp declines, including watches, digital cameras and fashion items, each of which fell by between 10% and 13%.

Warc's latest International Ad Forecast, which draws from Dentsu's data, expects the Japanese ad market to expand at a rate of 1.7% this year.

Data sourced from Campaign Asia-Pacific. Mumbrella Asia; additional content by Warc staff