High-speed Internet services are not available to residents in 11.5 percent of 3,123 municipalities across Japan, mostly on remote islands and mountainous areas, according to the government.
A study by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry on the percentage of municipalities where broadband services are available in each of the 47 prefectures as of the end of October reveals a digital divide between urban and rural areas.
Broadband services include connections via ADSL and fiber optics.
There were an estimated 16.59 million people using broadband services as of June 30, the ministry said.
Every municipality in seven prefectures -- Osaka, Kanagawa, Hyogo, Tochigi, Chiba, Mie and Akita -- had access to broadband services, according to the study. In Osaka, where there is heavy competition among a throng of providers, fiber-optic services were available in all of its municipalities.
Aomori Prefecture had the least coverage of broadband services at 64.2 percent. The percentage for Hiroshima and Kagoshima prefectures was also low at 69.2 percent and 69.8 percent.
Tokyo, with its administrative control over many remote islands, ranked 22nd among the 47 prefectures, with broadband coverage at 93.5 percent.
It is the first government study showing broadband service coverage by prefecture. The study is based on the number of municipalities as of April 1 and does not reflect mergers among municipalities in the meantime.