The longer I live in Japan, the more I think Apple needs to do a very strong in-your-face everywhere marketing campaign in the entire country, focused on iMessage privacy, security, and encryption.
Though it seems that the majority of people in Japan use iPhones, virtually no one uses iMessage. Instead, everyone uses LINE, which is not encrypted by default (and no one turns it on), and all sorts of personal data is stored and linked to you by LINE Yahoo!
Of course, I use it too—only out of necessity—though I make every attempt to move conversations off LINE whenever possible. But when people ask what I’d prefer, they mention WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. All three products are owned by Meta, who is notorious for data collection. It’s not that people don’t care, I think they frankly just don’t know. When I say “iMessage,” there’s a look in their eye like they have no idea what I’m talking about. I open the Messages app on their phone, and it’s completely full of automated text messages (SMS). No one uses it for personal communication.
Apple once cared about the Japanese market so much that it drew thousands of emoji to appeal to the country. I suspect the primary reason LINE is the de facto default in Japan is just because there’s a variety of app themes and stamps (stickers). And I understand how much that means to people, because it matters a lot to me too. iMessage is way behind in the “fun” category, but I can’t imagine trading privacy for a cuter app.
Perhaps Apple wrote Japan off as a lost cause for iMessage, but with effort toward making the app more customizable and getting popular sticker artists to make sticker packs for iMessage (and making that process 1000% easier for artists), I think they could have a shot with a marketing campaign.

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