Usability in Japan

This chapter outlines the usability activity in Japan. It starts from the historical overview of usability in Japan by adding referential information on the Japanese society including geographical characteristics, society, history and culture, then explains about the overview of usability activities in Japan focusing on the influence of ISO13407, web usability and universal design. Activities in industry and academia are then introduced with some examples of projects including the activity of HCD-Net, the web usability of government web site, and the certification of HCD professionals that were conducted recently. In addition to the concluding remarks, the relationship to the Kansei engineering and the current concern to the user experience are discussed.