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Information Technology and Communications Policy in Japan (exec
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 05:34:28 -0400
FROM CRISIS TO INFORMATION SOCIETY IN JAPAN by Stephen J. Anderson Associate Professor Center for Global Communications Paper delivered at the Japan Studies Association of Canada, September 30, 1995, University of Victoria, British Columbia Japan appears to be in the midst of a crisis of national identity. With the end of the Cold War, Japan underwent changes in its polity, economy, and society that disrupted the patterns of its success since 1945. A polity based on the alliance with the United States no longer skews domestic party alignments, and factional defections have ended one-party dominance. An economy that benefited from unfettered access to the US market as a quid pro quo for Cold War loyalty has shifted more overtly to diversified bases of global and regional markets as well as broader economic priorities. And Japanese society itself reflects the changes from its interdependence with countries overseas in addition to inherent domestic trends as a wealthy industrial nation with its workforce rapidly becoming the oldest population in the world. Amid such a short-term crisis, Japanese are already deciding upon their future economic-based efforts as global leaders. This paper argues that a key aspect of economic growth will be based on the emergence of information technology and communications policies that are likely to sustain Japan as a global power. The basis for reorganization builds upon the strengths of political concensus, economic infrastructure, and social capital that will fuel Japan's future economic growth. The degree of success and final shape of this new identity remain open to question, but the fundamentals will be based upon a broad sense of "informatization" or joohooka. A single key sector of the political economy offers clues about the direction of larger shifts in Japan. Japan is heading in directions never before imagined about its social and global relations. This paper makes an argument that is largely contrary to the doomsayers in the Japanese media and the self-congratulatory writers in foreign economic media that amplify problems in Japan. In the future, Japan is poised to enter the next century with new politics, restructured economics, and information technologies applied to its advanced society. But first we must recall the conventional views that observe contemporary problems and project an image of crisis in Japan. [ for full paper ... http://ifrm.glocom.ac.jp/doc/a01.001/txt1.html djf] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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