Android and the iPhone are locked in a battle all around the world to see what OS is the most popular with users and which of them will grab the most of the market. For a long time the iPhone was ahead of Android in most places, but the tide is turning. Many reports have come out that show Android now ahead of the iPhone in several markets and the latest market for Android to take the lead is Japan. Android handsets have now overtaken the iPhone in market share for Japan reports Bloomberg.

According to Bloomberg, the Android smartphones now have 57% of the Japanese smartphone market for the last fiscal year. The figures come from research firm MM Research Institute Ltd. Overall Android smartphone shipments in Japan were 4.91 million units for the fiscal year ending March 31. The same period the previous year Android smartphones shipped 250,000 units. That is a tremendous amount of growth in a year’s time.

Over the same fiscal year, the iPhone shipped 3.23 million units and made up 38% of the Japanese smartphone market. However, despite the fact that Android smartphones as a category have more of the market than the iPhone, but Apple is still the single most popular smartphone maker in Japan. The previous year Apple shipped 1.69 million iPhones in Japan.

[via Bloomberg]