Abstract
As the Internet developed, emerging out of the uniquely scientific and strategic communications environments of university research laboratories and the military, it was not altogether clear that this new technology had a great deal of potential. Governments generally viewed the Internet as an adjunct of the scientific enterprise; very few people saw much general or public use. By the early 1990s, that had changed. The Internet spread beyond and through university campuses. Government departments discovered the potential for internal communications. And, most critically, the private sector came to the realization that this odd combination of computer and telecommunications technologies might well have commercial applications. Governments had the potential to speed up the development of the Internet, by investing in technological infrastructure, training and scientific development. They also all had regulations, procedures, licensing requirements and the like which had not anticipated the development of the Internet. By the late 1990s, it had become increasingly clear that the interface of government and technology would play a critical role in determining the role and impact of the Internet within specific societies. What would be determined on a country by country basis was the degree to which the government’s role would be constructive or constraining.
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Notes
Japanese Ministry of Education, ‘Sangakurenkei now: partnership between universities and industry’, Apr. 2002, p. 4.
Bruce Lambert, ‘Building innovative communities: lessons from Japan’s science city projects,’ European Institute of Japanese Studies, Working Paper 107, Nov. 2000.
This section is drawn largely from Ken Coates, ‘Back in the race: Japan and the internet’, Japan after the Economic Miracle: In Search of New Direction, P. Bowles and L. Woods (eds), Kluwer Academic Press, 2000, pp. 71–84.
Mariko Tomiyama and Yuko Maeda, ‘Internet and Japan’, 1994, (http://muhucs.helsinki.fi/mailing_ists/pointers/msg00036.html
For an excellent historical overview of the development of the Internet and, in particular, the public/private interface in North America, see Janet Abbate, ‘Government, business and the making of the Internet’, Business History Review, 2001, vol. 75, no. 1, pp. 147–76.
Roger Boivert, ‘Doing high technology business in Japan’, presented sponsored by Ladner Downs and Deloitte Touche, Vancouver, 27 May 1998.
Jim Rohwer, ‘Japan goes Web crazy’. Fortune, vol. 141, no. 3, 7 Feb. 2000, pp. 115–18.
For one view of the potential of the IT initiatives in Japan, see T. Howell, ‘The Internet as cure for Japan’s Ills’, World Trade, 2001, vol. 14, no. 7, pp. 42–3.
For a general history of the role of NTT in national economic development, see M. Anchordoguy’, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Company (NTT) and the Building of a telecommunications industry in Japan’, Business History Review, 2001, vol. 75, no. 3, pp. 507–41.
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For an example of how this relates to the field of oncology, see H. Mizushima et al., ‘Japanese experience in telemedicine in oncology’, International Journal of Medical Informatics, 2001, 61(2–3), pp. 207–15.
See also K. Matsumura et al., ‘A network system of medical and welfare information service for the patients, their families, hospitals, local governments, and commercial companies in a medical service area’, Journal of Medical Systems, 2002, 26(3), pp. 249–54.
Takashi Takahashi, ‘The present and future of telemedicine in Japan’, International Journal of Medical Informatics, 2001, vol. 61, no. 2, p. 131. See also ‘Medicolegal topics on the Internet in Japan’, Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 2000, vol. 6, no. 1.
C.S. Thompson, ‘Enlisting on-line residents: expanding the boundaries of e-government in a Japanese rural township’, Government Information Quarterly, 2002, 19(2), pp. 173–88.
L. Tkach, ‘Politics’Japan: Party Competition on the Internet in Japan’, Party Politics, 2003, vol. 9, no. 1 (2003), pp. 105–23.
For one view of opportunities for Internet-based education, see Fumie Kumagai, ‘Possibilities for using the Internet in Japanese education in the information age society’, International Journal of Japanese Sociology, 2001, no. 10, pp. 29–44. For an early overview of the possible impact of the Internet on Japanese education, see T. Morris-Suzuki and Peter Rimmer, ‘Cyberstructure, society and education: possibilities and problems in the Japanese context’, paper presented to the National Institute of Multimedia Education, International Symposium, 1999.
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© 2003 Ken Coates and Carin Holroyd
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Coates, K., Holroyd, C. (2003). Japan.com: Government and the Promise of the Internet Society. In: Japan and the Internet Revolution. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403990075_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403990075_3
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