IP: Policy Forum Makes Proposals on Japan's MPT and NTT

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 17:25:43 +0900
From: sja () glocom ac jp (Stephen J. Anderson)


The Information Technology and Communications Policy Forum of Japan held
its first in a series of press briefings about NTT deregulation and reform.


Full texts of the proposals are being made available on the
Inforum Project server (http://ifrm.glocom.ac.jp/ipf/pr1/index.html).
Extensive background materials are linked through our home pages.


An Agenda of October 12 Press Conference follows.


Presentations and Speakers:


1.  Seeking Systemic Reform of the Information Technology and
Communications Industries--Kotaro Suzumura (Hitotsubashi University)


2. Policy Proposal on Local Telephone Markets--Tsuruhiko Nanbu (Gakushuin
University)


3. Central Issues of Information Technology and Communications
Policy--Shumpei Kumon (International University of Japan) and Kazuhiko
Nishi (Ascii Corporation)


Policy Proposals of October 12


Proposal #1-1. Employ the lessons of earlier telecommunications regulation
for designing a new systemic framework


Proposal #1-2. Give utmost attention to transparency and fairness in the
competitive framework in MPT regulations


Proposal #1-3. MPT's Telecommunications Council must emphasize openness,
transparency, and procedural fairness in its deliberations.


Proposal #2-1:  Considering the future of wireless technology and the
future technological revolution involving both optic fiber and copper wire,
the perception that a bottleneck will develop among the common carriers is
already a relic of the past.


Proposal #2-2:  When there is unceasing technological revolution in
regulated industries, regulation inevitably represses the opportunities for
business created by that revolution.


Proposal #3-1: The central issue in today's information technology and
communications policy is promoting the construction of telecommunications
infrastructure for the information society based upon an open data network
(ODN).


Proposal #3-2: The debate surrounding the information technology and
communications policy should focus at the level of the proposed modes and
policies towards construction of an infrastructure for information
technology and telecommunications.  During the course of any debate
conducted at the other levels, we must keep in mind these issues of
infrastructure.


Members below disagree on some specifics of proposals, but all support the
overall thrust of
the points above.  In short, their views differ from most talk limited to
telephony, and are quite critical of the MPT and NTT discussions to date.


The current Policy Forum members (in kana order) are as follows:


Kazunori Ishiguro (University of Tokyo)
Ken-ichi Imai (Stanford University)
Masahiro Okuno (University of Tokyo)
Shumpei Kumon (International University of Japan)
Jiro Kokuryo (Keio University)
Kotaro Suzumura (Hitotsubashi University)
Tsuruhiko Nanbu (Gakushuin University)
Kazuhiko Nishi (Ascii Corporation)
Yukio Noguchi (Hitotsubashi University)
Yasuki Hamano (National Center for Multimedia Education)
Taizo Yakushiji (Keio University)
Shin Yoshimura (Internet Initiative Japan)
Akinori Yonezawa (University of Tokyo


The Secretariat of the Information Technology and Communications Policy
Forum of Japan is in the Center for Global Communications (GLOCOM), and
further questions and materials may be address to me or our staff.
===========================================
Stephen J. Anderson
Associate Professor, Inforum Project Director
Center for Global Communications (GLOCOM)
International University of Japan


Inforum Project http://ifrm.glocom.ac.jp/
===========================================