• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, September 17, 2013

AOL Networks' Adap.tv this morning announced the opening of its office in Tokyo, Japan. Hisashige "Qz" Hashimoto has been hired to lead the new team in Tokyo as Representative Director of AOL Online Japan and Adap.tv's Japan operations. He was previously head of Brightcove Japan. 

The company has been working in the Japanese market via its regional hub in Sydney, Australia, but Toby Gabriner, president of Adap.tv, hopes that the presence of an office will help them scale in the region.

Adap.tv referenced a comScore report noting that Japan had more than 60 million unique video viewers in December 2012, and that the average viewer spent 26% more time watching online video than the year before. In a statement, Hashimoto called Japan "a burgeoning online video market, one that holds yet-untapped potential for video advertising."

Numerous companies in the programmatic space have entered the Japanese market this year. A few weeks ago, demand-side platform (DSP) Turn opened an office in Tokyo. In February, TubeMogul opened an office in Tokyo after raising over $1 million in financing. OpenX launched its own Japanese operations over the summer, and Maxifier hosted an event in Tokyo to educate the market on programmatic.

Gabriner stated, “Our approach is to invest strategically in high-opportunity global markets, and the establishment of our presence in Japan is a key part of our growth strategy."

According to the release, Yasushi Okue, current representative director of AOL Japan, will continue to keep his title and role in managing AOL’s media business in the country.