This recent research into the company websites of those listed in the Nikkei 225 index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has shown that 68.9%(155 out of 255) still uses table layout. Those with CSS layout are only 12.4% (28 out of 255). A hybrid of table and CSS layout are 14.2% (32 out of 255). A rather dissapointing 4.4% (10 out of 255) are Flash only.
More than 50% of the sites are constructedin HTML4.01 transitional, less than 10% are XHTML1.0 strict or transitional. 79.1% do not specify the DTDs. 51.6% of the site uses flash in some way, and 6.2% uses frames.
(The percentage figures are taken from the attached pdf file.)
This does not mean that the rest of the company and corporations in Japan are also uses table layout. Also, in most cases the websites are developed by the developers and creators outside, ie as a client.
Its been nearly two years since Douglas Bowman wrote an article “Throwing Tables Out the Window”. Together with past research into the website layouts of prefectural concils, major city councils, governmental, and portal sites in Japan, looks like the table layout is still the way to go in Japan.