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

iOS 26 Battery Glass Feature

iOS 26.1 Beta Liquid Glass Battery Drain Test: Tinted vs Clear Mode

Friday October 24, 2025 2:30 pm PDT by
In the fourth iOS 26.1 beta, Apple added a "Tinted" option that reduces the translucency of Liquid Glass for those who prefer a more opaque look. I saw some comments wondering whether the setting might preserve battery life, so I thought I'd do some testing. Test Settings I did four separate tests using the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and I kept the parameters as similar as possible. Here are the...
iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon With These 8 New Features for Your iPhone

Wednesday October 22, 2025 6:15 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. iOS 26.1 is currently in beta testing. The update will likely be released in the first half of November, and it is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer, but some...
iOS 26 Maps Glass

Apple Reportedly Moving Ahead With Ads in Maps App

Sunday October 26, 2025 6:22 am PDT by
Apple Maps could feature integrated ads as soon as next year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that Apple's plan to bring more ads to iOS is moving "gaining traction," with the Maps app being next in line. The project will apparently give restaurants and other businesses the option to pay to have their details featured more prominently in...
trump white house ballroom

Apple Donating to Trump's $350M White House Ballroom Project

Thursday October 23, 2025 3:55 pm PDT by
Apple is one of several tech companies that will contribute to the construction of U.S. President Donald Trump's 90,000-square-foot ballroom, reports CNN. Construction began on the ballroom this week, and the White House's east wing was torn down. Trump claims that the ballroom will cost $350 million, and that it will be privately funded through donations. The cost has already increased $150 ...
iPhone 17 Colors

iPhone 18 Rumored to Feature 50% More RAM

Saturday October 25, 2025 2:57 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 could feature 50% more memory than its predecessor, according to Korea's The Bell. With its latest iPhone lineup, the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max feature 12GB of memory. This is a significant increase of 4GB more their predecessors, largely driven by the demands of on-device artificial intelligence processing. The iPhone 17 is the only new...
iOS 26 Feature

iOS 26 Leaker Being Sued by Apple is Actually a 'Lifelong Apple Fanboy'

Friday October 24, 2025 9:20 am PDT by
In July, Apple sued well-known YouTuber Jon Prosser and his acquaintance Michael Ramacciotti over alleged theft of the company's trade secrets, after Prosser leaked some iOS 26 details in videos uploaded to his YouTube channel Front Page Tech. If you are not caught up on the lawsuit, read our initial coverage to learn more. Earlier this week, Prosser told The Verge he has "been in active...
All Screen iPhone 2027 Feature 1

Report: Apple to Skip 'iPhone 19' Name for 'iPhone 20'

Thursday October 23, 2025 4:28 am PDT by
Apple's new iPhone lineup launched in the fall of 2027 will be called the "iPhone 20" models, rather than the "iPhone 19," according to research firm Omdia. Speaking at a conference in Seoul (via ETNews), Omdia Chief Researcher Heo Moo-yeol corroborated rumors that Apple plans to move the launch of its standard iPhone to the first half of the year and provided some additional clarity about...
Emergency SOS via Satellite iPhone YT

iPhone 18 Pro Rumored to Support Full 5G Satellite Internet

Friday October 24, 2025 7:18 am PDT by
At least some new iPhone models launching next year may support full 5G satellite internet, according to a report this week from The Information. "Apple plans to add support in upcoming iPhones as early as next year for 5G networks that aren't tethered to Earth's surface, which includes satellites," the report said. "That would give the iPhone full internet access over satellite," it added. ...
M4 MacBook Air 13 and 15 inch Feature Pink and Teal

Windows 10 Deadline Boosts Mac Sales

Saturday October 25, 2025 3:34 am PDT by
The Windows 10 end-of-support deadline is driving the largest coordinated PC replacement cycle in years across the industry, and Apple is emerging as one of the main beneficiaries as Mac shipments accelerate. Counterpoint Research this week reported that nearly 40% of the global installed PC base was still running Windows 10 ahead of the October 2025 cutoff, triggering early fleet renewals...

Top Rated Comments

farewelwilliams Avatar
63 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
63 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
63 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
63 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
63 months ago
Wow! It looks AMAZING!!!
Happy New Year Everyone! Happy 2021!!!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
madrigal77 Avatar
63 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)