Info-Communication in the 21st century

From : www.soumu.go.jp/joho_tsusin/eng/Resources/WhitePaper/WP2000/1-1.pdf

1. The IT Revolution
The world is facing a big change in industrial
civilization: the info-communications technology
(IT) revolution. The IT wave, most recently
exemplified by surging popularity of the Internet
and mobile telecommunications, is hastening
the paradigm shift, already in progress, from an
industrial society to an information society.
At the moment, however, economic revitalization
is a major concern in Japan, as are the
aging of society, globalization, diversifying
lifestyles, and the environment. All of these are
problems that need to be dealt with over the
medium and long terms, and many believe that
IT will play a crucial role in solving them.

2. Expectations for New Info-communications
Services
Internet User Survey indicates that the Internet
is the most important info-communications
medium in present daily life (more than even
TV), as indicated by a score of 8.4 on a scale of
1 to 10. The score rises to 9.4 when survey
respondents consider their daily lives five years
from now, while cell phones/PHS scored 8.1
. Furthermore, Study on the use of
information & telecommunications equipment and
services reports that about 60% of people with
PCs in their homes are connected to networks
and that only very few people will have standalone
terminals in the future.

3. Info-communications Trends
The Internet and mobile telecommunications
are rapidly gaining in importance in Japan’s infocommunications
sector. PC shipment volume
in Japan grew 31.9% year over year in fiscal
1999, reaching 9,941,000, while shipments of
color TVs slipped 0.3%, to 10,146,000 units

4. The Internet
As of the end of 1999 there were estimated
some 27.06 million Internet users in Japan in
the 15–69 age range, an increase of 59.7% year
over year. The outlook for 2005 is for 76.7 million
users. The Internet reaches 19.1% of
Japanese households, 31.8% of establishments,
and 88.6% of enterprises, and these penetration
rates are expanding.

5. Mobile Telecommunications
In its September 1999 report, the Next-
Generation Mobile Telecommunications
System Committee of the MPT’s Telecommunications
Technology Council projects that the
total number of future public land mobile
telecommunication service subscriptions in
Japan, including cell phones (portable and
automobile) and PHS but not limited to
subscriptions for IMT-2000 service, will
number 64.5 million at the end of fiscal 2000
and 81 million at the end of fiscal 2010.
Interpolating from these figures gives an estimate
of about 79.03 million at the end of fiscal
2005.