In Japan, Even Hospitals and City Offices Use LINE

Hospitals. Local city offices. In Japan, even these are now sending notifications through LINE.

Restaurants and hair salons doing this? That's already old news — most customers would expect it by now. That might sound surprising for official communication, though.

Closer to a National Utility

LINE isn't just a messaging app here — it's closer to a national utility. The same account a teenager uses to chat with friends is the one their grandparents use to reach them, and the one a city hall now uses to send reminders. It's one of the few tools genuinely used across every generation in the same household.

That cross-generational reach is exactly what makes it useful for business. A channel that skews younger — or one still unfamiliar to older users — automatically excludes part of your customer base. LINE doesn't have that problem.

Why It Gets Read

For companies communicating with Japanese customers, this has a practical implication: a LINE Official Account often gets read at a much higher rate than an email newsletter would. Not because the content is different — because the channel itself is one people already check daily, without thinking twice.

There's also a quieter advantage: signing up for a LINE Official Account feels low-friction for Japanese users, simply because the habit is already there. Handing over an email address for a newsletter carries more hesitation than tapping "add friend" on an app already on their phone.

A Question Worth Asking

If your customer communication in Japan is email-first by default, it might be worth asking: is that because it works best here, or because it's what worked elsewhere?

Natsuki Suzuki is the founder of BANTO, which provides back-office support — accounting, HR and payroll, and administration — to overseas companies and their Japan entities. She spent 15 years in Europe and brings both sides of the cultural equation to every engagement.