Have You Ever Experienced "Jisui"?

Each year, InfoTrends publishes its much-anticipated Japan Document Scanner Market Size Forecast Report. Based on this year’s report, a total of 200,000 scanners shipped in Japan during 2011. This number is up 70 percent in relation to 2009. Mobile scanners and personal scanners are among the fastest-growing segments in Japan.

The chart below shows 2011 Japan Document Scanner placements by vertical. The number of small, low-end units that are sold to homes, corporations, and small office/home office (SOHO) environments will no doubt increase over time since a number of new devices have recently been introduced to the market.

The home market is currently experiencing a very unique phenomenon known as “Jisui,” which means self-catering in Japanese. End-users will buy a book or magazine, use a home cutting machine to crop it, and then scan it to a personal computer, tablet, or smartphone to create their own digital copy. According to InfoTrends’ survey data, 72% of document scanner owners have tried Jisui at home.

Growth in this process can be attributed to the delay of e-book adoption coupled with the rapid penetration of tablets in the Japanese market. In fact, amazon.co.jp sells a “Jisui set” including a ScanSnap scanner and a cutting machine. Additionally, some publishers are currently selling Jisui guide books and DVDs.

A wide variety of Jisui service providers are now doing business in Japan. These companies take hard-copy materials from customers, cut and scan them, and then deliver the PDF back to the customer. The cut books are typically disposed of at that point. The price of this service is typically about $1 per book, excluding shipping and media costs. Although this service is certainly increasing in popularity, writers and publishing companies are concerned about copyright violations.

On the other hand, Jisui also represents a change in work styles. More and more businesspeople are scanning work documents using their home scanners, or mobile scanners on the road.

According to InfoTrends’ research, 35% of businesspeople are using home scanners on business documents. Smartphones continue to penetrate the market, and consumers are increasingly using them to fulfill certain business needs. Many businesspeople are bringing their own devices to work, and a similar trend is occurring within the document scanner market. During 2011, a number of multifunctional peripheral (MFP) vendors rushed to launch new solutions and services to support mobile devices. In addition to increasing scanning volumes, this trend also generated more volumes for MFPs.
InfoTrends’ 2013 Japan Document Scanner Market Size Forecast Report is scheduled to be published this summer. This report will analyze some of the application changes that are occurring within the mobile segment, as well as document scanner with network capabilities. InfoTrends is also planning to publish its new China Document Scanner Market Size Forecast Report during the fall. According to our Quarterly Document Scanner Tracking Program data, the Chinese market is growing rapidly. It is currently the third-largest market in the world, following behind the U.S. and Western Europe. InfoTrends’ Chinese scanner report will include an exclusive market size forecast, provide vendor market shares, and discuss document scanner verticals and applications. For more information, please e-mail [email protected] and we will be happy to assist you.