Yahoo! was the most popular internet property in Japan in June, according to research conducted by comScore. The figures, gathered through the company's World Metrix audience ratings service, indicated that a total of 41.5 million unique visitors online in Japan aged 15 and above used the search engine.
Yahoo! is now thought to reach 77 per cent of the Japanese online population, averaging 33 visits per user in June.
Managing director of comScore Japan Maru Sato commented: "Yahoo! is the most popular property in Japan by some margin.
"Behind them, Google and Microsoft Sites are locked in a battle for second place, with 31.3 million unique visitors and 31.0 million unique visitors respectively."
Other top ten most visited properties included Rakuten Inc, Amazon, Wikipedia and the Nifty Corporation.
The research also suggested that Japanese internet users average 15 days per month online.
IZA.NE.JP, a user participation news site set up in June 2006, was found to be the fastest growing site, increasing its traffic by 52 per cent.
Mr Sato commented on the company's development, saying "despite being only a year old, the IZA.NE.JP property has undergone significant growth, particularly over the last few months".
Mozilla also experienced an increase in traffic, with a 26 per cent rise in unique visitors over the month.
ComScore is an internet information provider, which specialises in providing companies with insights into marketing, sales and trading strategies.
