An old and worn out media policy

 　Five years ago I presented a private policy proposal titled “Ten goals for media policy.” Even as we were being rocked by overseas pressure from the likes of Google and Apple, the administration’s media policy was backward-looking, whether on media convergence, encouragement of competition, or opening the airwaves. I was impatient. The 10 goals are listed below. (References to current circumstance indicate 2009, the year at the time they were written).

1. Make all TV programs accessible, whether on television, PC, or cellphones. (Aim to raise the current 13% of secondary terrestrial broadcasts to 50% by 2015.)
2. Make all of Japan’s content accessible around the world.
(Raise the current proportion of the overseas market in the total content revenue, 2.5%, to 10% by 2015)
3. Free ourselves from reliance on paper, CD, and DVD media.
(Raise the 39% transmission rate by internet and broadcasting to 75% by 2015.)
4. Make emergency information accessible anywhere.
(Expand the current 65 billion yen market in digital signage to one trillion by 2015.)
5. Make it possible to conduct all shopping transactions using a cellphone.
(Raise the current 1.5% e-commerce usage rate among retail and service sectors to 5% by 2015.)
6. Manage the activities of colleges, hospitals, and city offices online.
(Raise the current 30~50% ICT usage rate among education, welfare/medical, and governmental services to 60% by 2015.)
7. Produce a television drama performed by household robots.
8. Recruit those interested in becoming top-rate pop culture creators to study in Japan.
(Arrange for 45,000 of Japan’s 300,000 foreign students to study at colleges or graduate schools with a focus on content.)
9. Provide everyone in Japan with the means of creating anime and music.
(30% of the nation’s elementary school children able to create animation and music by 2015.)
10. The result: greatly expanding the content industry.

　The content of the goals placed special significance on the media convergence and developing domestic industry. After that, and after several repeated arguments with the administration, the result was that the government agreed to some of the points. 1. 50% rate of secondary broadcasts. 2. 10% overseas consumption of Japanese content. 4. One trillion dollar market in digital signage, and 8. 45,000 exchange students studying content, which were added to the government’s official document.
　However, in the last 5 years, the media situation has changed completely. This plan has been rendered completely obsolete. A new strategy has yet to be drawn up. What we need in the current fluid situation is not vision, but decisiveness. The ability to work with what’s in front of you, make decisions, get results, and tidy up afterwards. For the time being, I intend to proceed in this manner.