For the first time since it started reporting figures in 2005, the Recording Industry Association of Japan notes that the legal music downloading market has shrunk. Taking both PC-based and mobile-based downloads, the number of downloads made in the second quarter of this year was 111.6 million, compared to 114.3 million the quarter before.

-- Mobile is still accounting for the overwhelming majority of downloads and revenues in Japan’s music download market, at 104.8 million downloads compared to 6.8 million downloads via PC; and generating 16 billion yen versus 1.3 billion yen. Ringback tones and full track downloads both saw increases—respectively 21.5 million from 19.2 million, and 25.6 million from 23.3 million. But the big-ticket item of ringtones fell by some 10 percent to 54.7 million, bringing down overall mobile revenue figures by 0.5 percent.

-- Declines at larger music portals like Yahoo Music and iTunes contributed to the fall, notes IDG. It’s a far cry from a couple of years back, when Apple boasted that after it opened its iTunes Japan online store, it had 1 million downloads in just four days, a faster take-up than in any other country offering iTunes.

-- Despite the decline in volumes, there’s an indication that higher-value downloads are at least keeping revenues going in the right direction. The total music download market reached a record high of 17.62 billion yen ($152 million), a slight increase on the 17.58 billion yen it made the quarter previously.

-- The RIAJ compiles its numbers based on figures provided by 42 member companies. The release is in Japanese but there’s a useful translation of the important tables containing figures on Wireless Watch Japan.

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