Domestic shipments of mobile phones rose 22.4 percent in January from a year earlier to 3.77 million units for the fourth straight monthly increase, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association said Tuesday.
An association official attributed the rise, which includes car phones, to growing replacement demand for mobile phones with built-in cameras as mobile phone service providers introduce new models.
"The momentum is likely to remain in place in the short run," the official said. "But the net increase of subscriptions to mobile phones is about half the year-earlier level, so I'm concerned about future prospects."
The net increase was 386,100, down 45.3 percent from a year earlier.
Domestic shipments of personal handy-phone system handsets continued to fall below the year-earlier level for the 23rd consecutive month, declining 66.1 percent to 65,000 units.