Apple Looks to 2021 With Japanese New Year Ad Highlighting the App Store

Apple today shared a new App Store ad on its YouTube channel in Japan ahead of the New Year. The brief 15-second video highlights various apps available on the App Store for productivity, connecting with others, and gaming.


The ad emphasizes how the App Store can help people get off to a good start in 2021, complete with colorful animations. New Year or "Shōgatsu" is widely considered the most important holiday in Japan, observed on January 1-3.

Apple also typically holds a one-day New Year's shopping event in Japan in early January, offering Apple Store gift cards with the purchase of select Apple products, but it has yet to announce an event of this kind for 2021. This year, the event took place on January 2 at Apple Stores in Japan and through the Apple Store app.

Update: Apple has announced that the shopping event will be held January 2-3.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 13 New Features

Wednesday April 23, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iphone 17 dummies sonny dickson

iPhone 17 Air Almost as Thin as Its Buttons, New Images Show

Thursday April 24, 2025 2:14 am PDT by
If you missed the video showing dummy models of Apple's all-new super thin iPhone 17 Air that's expected later this year, Sonny Dickson this morning shared some further images of the device in close alignment with the other dummy models in the iPhone 17 lineup, indicating just how thin it is likely to be in comparison. The iPhone 17 Air is expected to be around 5.5mm thick – with a thicker ...
iPhone 17 Air Pastel Feature

iPhone 17 Air Launching Later This Year With These 16 New Features

Thursday April 24, 2025 8:24 am PDT by
While the so-called "iPhone 17 Air" is not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the ultra-thin device. Overall, the iPhone 17 Air sounds like a mixed bag. While the device is expected to have an impressively thin and light design, rumors indicate it will have some compromises compared to iPhone 17 Pro models, including only a single rear camera, a...
Global Close Your Rings Day Pin

Apple Stores Giving Away a Limited-Edition Pin For Free Today

Thursday April 24, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Starting today, April 24, Apple Stores around the world are giving away a special pin for free to customers who request one, while supplies last. Photo Credit: Filip Chudzinski The enamel pin's design is inspired by the Global Close Your Rings Day award in the Activity app, which Apple Watch users can receive by closing all three Activity rings today. The limited-edition pin is the physical...
Apple Logo Spotlight Blue

White House Hits Back at Apple's Massive EU Fine

Thursday April 24, 2025 5:57 am PDT by
Apple's $570 million fine from the EU has triggered a sharp rebuke from the White House, which called the fine a form of economic extortion, Reuters reports. The fine was announced on Wednesday by the European Commission, following a formal investigation into Apple's compliance with the bloc's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a landmark piece of legislation aimed at curbing the market dominance of ...
AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Friday April 18, 2025 5:16 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
apple watch ultra yellow

What's Next for the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch SE 3

Friday April 25, 2025 2:44 pm PDT by
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch, which launched on April 24, 2015. Yesterday, we recapped features rumored for the Apple Watch Series 11, but since 2015, the Apple Watch has also branched out into the Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch SE, so we thought we'd take a look at what's next for those product lines, too. 2025 Apple Watch Ultra 3 Apple didn't update the...
ipad air magic keyboard feature

iPadOS 19 Rumored to Show Mac-Like Menu Bar When Connected to Magic Keyboard

Thursday April 24, 2025 12:09 pm PDT by
When an iPad running iPadOS 19 is connected to a Magic Keyboard, a macOS-like menu bar will appear on the screen, according to the leaker Majin Bu. This change would further blur the lines between the iPad and the Mac. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously claimed that iPadOS 19 will be "more like macOS," with unspecified improvements to productivity, multitasking, and app window management,...

Top Rated Comments

farewelwilliams Avatar
57 months ago
japan is great and their culture is amazing in many ways. highly recommend people traveling to Japan after covid is over.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
patent10021 Avatar
57 months ago
I live down the street from the Kyoto Apple Store. The end of this year can't come any sooner. One bonus of Covid is there are no tourists so there are amazing pictures to be had everywhere.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacLC Avatar
57 months ago

Another noisy ad. Doesn’t matter what language it’s in, the ad’s soundtrack must be jarring to your ears. If it’s not, it’s probably a fake ad or a parody.
Nope, clicking the link it's from Apple Japan, so it's real ?
It's the typical "dasai" hiphop that we've had to put up with over the past 15 years.

We have so much good pop music here, but Japanese marketers insert hiphop because it combines an "exotically foreign" beat with "safely understandable Japanese" lyrics.

There's nothing more astroturf than upperclass Japanese youth running around flashing bizarre hand gestures, saying, "yo, saggu raifu, yo" ("yo, thug life, yo") trying so hard to be repressed minorities despite being part of the affluent 99% majority.

As for what most Japanese listen to, it's something more along the lines of this, which is one of the songs to be performed at the Tokyo Olympics.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
goomba478 Avatar
57 months ago
Love this! The pixelated icons and graphics are especially cool. 2021 can’t come soon enough :).
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
57 months ago
Wow! It looks AMAZING!!!
Happy New Year Everyone! Happy 2021!!!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
madrigal77 Avatar
57 months ago

japan is great and their culture is amazing in many ways. highly recommend people traveling to Japan after covid is over.
I normally go for New Year, but obviously didn’t this year. And I just saw there was a Covid exposure on the flight we normally take from Vancouver to Tokyo. I don’t know why all international passenger flights haven’t been shut down.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)