Apple Looks to 2021 With Japanese New Year Ad Highlighting the App Store

Sunday December 27, 2020 6:14 pm PST by Joe Rossignol

Apple today shared a new App Store ad on its YouTube channel in Japan ahead of the New Year. The brief 15-second video highlights various apps available on the App Store for productivity, connecting with others, and gaming.

The ad emphasizes how the App Store can help people get off to a good start in 2021, complete with colorful animations. New Year or "Shōgatsu" is widely considered the most important holiday in Japan, observed on January 1-3.

Apple also typically holds a one-day New Year's shopping event in Japan in early January, offering Apple Store gift cards with the purchase of select Apple products, but it has yet to announce an event of this kind for 2021. This year, the event took place on January 2 at Apple Stores in Japan and through the Apple Store app.

Update: Apple has announced that the shopping event will be held January 2-3.

Tags: App Store, Apple Ads

Popular Stories

Apple Shares Apple Watch SOS Success Story

Tuesday July 21, 2026 9:26 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today highlighted the SOS feature in the Apple Watch, publishing a short video featuring a man named Phil, who crashed while mountain biking. Phil was biking with his two young children when he had an accident and was knocked unconscious. His Apple Watch detected the fall, calling emergency services and alerting his wife. He ended up breaking his collarbone and seven ribs, but was...

• 21 comments

Apple Loses EU Fight Over App Store Gatekeeper Label

Wednesday July 8, 2026 1:54 am PDT by Tim Hardwick

Apple's challenge against the EU's designation of its App Stores and iOS platform as "gatekeepers" was dismissed by Europe's top court on Wednesday, reports Reuters. "The General Court dismisses Apple's actions regarding its designation as a gatekeeper in relation to the App Store and iOS," the Luxembourg-based tribunal said.Apple took its case to Luxembourg's General Court in 2024 after the...

• 148 comments

Google Fined $1 Billion by EU for Search Bias and App Store Restrictions

Thursday July 23, 2026 5:39 am PDT by Tim Hardwick

Google was today fined €890 million ($1 billion) by the European Union for breaching antitrust rules with regard to its search and Google Play store services. The European Commission found that Google had broken the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by using its dominant position in the search market to favour its own services, like shopping and hotel deals, over those of rivals. The Commission ...

• 114 comments

Top Rated Comments

farewelwilliams

73 months ago

japan is great and their culture is amazing in many ways. highly recommend people traveling to Japan after covid is over.

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

patent10021

73 months ago

I live down the street from the Kyoto Apple Store. The end of this year can't come any sooner. One bonus of Covid is there are no tourists so there are amazing pictures to be had everywhere.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

MacLC

73 months ago

Another noisy ad. Doesn’t matter what language it’s in, the ad’s soundtrack must be jarring to your ears. If it’s not, it’s probably a fake ad or a parody.

Nope, clicking the link it's from Apple Japan, so it's real 😢
It's the typical "dasai" hiphop that we've had to put up with over the past 15 years.

We have so much good pop music here, but Japanese marketers insert hiphop because it combines an "exotically foreign" beat with "safely understandable Japanese" lyrics.

There's nothing more astroturf than upperclass Japanese youth running around flashing bizarre hand gestures, saying, "yo, saggu raifu, yo" ("yo, thug life, yo") trying so hard to be repressed minorities despite being part of the affluent 99% majority.

As for what most Japanese listen to, it's something more along the lines of this, which is one of the songs to be performed at the Tokyo Olympics.

Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

madrigal77

73 months ago

japan is great and their culture is amazing in many ways. highly recommend people traveling to Japan after covid is over.

I normally go for New Year, but obviously didn’t this year. And I just saw there was a Covid exposure on the flight we normally take from Vancouver to Tokyo. I don’t know why all international passenger flights haven’t been shut down.

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)