Market Overview

The domestic e-learning market based on service provider sales is estimated to be 381,200 million yen in FY2024, up 2.1% year on year. In detail, B2B for enterprises (including individuals belonging to organizations) increased by 7.8% year on year to 123,200 million yen, while B2C for individuals decreased 0.4% year on year to 258,000 million yen. As the growth in B2B is projected to offset the decline in B2C, the overall market is expected to expand from the previous year.

Demand for e-learning suddenly surged during the pandemic from FY2020 to FY2021, when face-to-face education was canceled, causing the market to expand rapidly. However, with the easing of behavioral restrictions and the resumption of socio-economic activities after FY2022, the growth rate of the e-learning market has slowed.

Noteworthy Topics

Despite Current Limited Demand, Reskilling Growth Expected in Future

As the government policy is highly promoted, reskilling is currently in the spotlight. As subsidies related to reskilling have been provided in FY2024, reskilling contents and services have also increased in the e-learning field.
At present, however, there do not seem to be many business-led reskilling initiatives that are sure to work because of the many complicated challenges that differ from one company to another.
Still, as employment becomes more dynamic and flexible, and as job-oriented employment steadily increases, the demand for reskilling is expected to flourish from the personal level.

Reskilling needs to be delivered according to the level of each learner, while the learners need to acquire new skills and knowledge while working.
E-learning can be a solution to the above challenges because it has the features of learning recommendations and curation optimized by each learner's level, and it is not limited by time and place. Therefore, as the demand for reskilling increases, e-learning is likely to meet it.

Future Outlook

The e-learning market in Japan is forecast to reach 384,900 million yen in FY2025, up 1.0% year on year.

B2B is expected to continue to drive the e-learning market, as e-learning for enterprises is in high demand, also encouraged by the mandatory disclosure of human resources information among listed companies, although the market growth rate may be relatively low due to an increase in limited-scale implementations owing to an expanded customer base, a further decline in unit price per customer, and intensified competition. 
B2C is expected to continue to decline, as e-learning in this sector is mainly provided to cram schools, university preparatory schools, and correspondence courses, where student enrollment is expected to be sluggish, although e-learning for English language courses and certifications is expected to grow.

Research Outline