The Future Predicted by Technology

■ The Future Predicted by Technology

Joichi Ito's book, "The Future Predicted by Technology."

Born in Kyoto, Joi has held positions at the MIT Media Lab and earned a doctorate from Keio University; he is now president of Chiba Institute of Technology. Despite being younger, Joi has many similarities with me and is far ahead, discussing web3 with respect.

Here are some key points from his book that I found noteworthy:

・Lower Layer Focus

In web1-2, the application layer attracted financial investment. In web3, the focus shifts to the protocol layer.

The protocols for web1-2 were HTTP, and the apps were GAFA.

For web3, the protocols are Bitcoin and Ethereum.

-- Web3 is tech-oriented and user-centric, allowing users to escape platform monopolization and cross barriers.

・Participation

Web1 was about reading, web2 about writing, and web3 is about participating.

-- The book highlights the potential of DAOs. I share a deep interest in this area.

Participation requires "contribution," similar to the way everyone contributed to developing Hatsune Miku through singing and dancing.

・Project-based Work

Through DAOs, management and organizational structures transition to project-based work using tokens.

Hierarchies collapse, leading to wealth redistribution.

-- In my "Creating a Super Leisure Society," I argued that people would spread their time across multiple jobs, and the distribution of wealth generated by machines becomes critical. Web3 might provide a solution

・Fandom

NFTs extend beyond art and games to include uses in religion, such as verifying the authenticity of relics, becoming a vital tool for building fan communities.

-- The fandom-based "push economy" will become a core strategy in entertainment, supported by web3.

・Individual-centric Approach

Even individuals who struggle with communication can thrive in the metaverse.

In web3, individuals navigate across platforms, engaging through their own identities.

-- The empowerment and liberation of individuals, free from enclosures, are fundamental to web3.

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How to Handle Digital Trust

 ■ How to Handle Digital Trust

I participated as a speaker at the "World Digital Conference" organized by Nikkei.

Theme: Why is Digital Trust Necessary?

I first spoke at the World Digital Summit in 1999, during my time at the MIT Media Lab, after leaving Kasumigaseki. Although the digital climate was energized then, by the following year, the eJapan initiative presented by the government was still grappling with the two major challenges of education and informatization of administration—challenges that persisted even twenty years later in the policy agenda. The pandemic made us aware of our digital shortcomings.

The government has introduced strategies to promote data usage.

From the private sector perspective, the Super Education Association, which I am involved with, has been making recommendations on establishing data usage guidelines.

Although it took a decade to integrate PCs and other digital tools, leveraging data might take another decade. A collaborative effort involving industry, government, and academia is necessary.

Japan's overall Digital Transformation (DX) effort is somewhat precarious.

While the government has established a Digital Agency to focus on administrative DX, the incident in Yamaguchi Prefecture, where COVID-19 relief funds were mistakenly distributed, revealed that offices and banks were still exchanging data using floppy disks—not via the internet, cloud, AI, or Web3, highlighting the reality of Japan's digital landscape. Before we can fully embrace DX, there are more fundamental issues to address.

Q: What new challenges have arisen from advancements in DX within the educational sector?

A: An environment for utilizing data has been established, but the predominant feeling is one of anxiety, which has not been sufficiently countered by visible benefits. The introduction of PCs and digital textbooks was initially met with similar apprehensions. Demonstrating tangible outcomes, like children enjoying learning and improving academically, was crucial. The same principle applies to data.

Q: What are the issues with misinformation during events like the Ukraine invasion and the US presidential elections?

A: There are three key approaches: regulatory, technological, and educational, all of which require comprehensive planning. From a regulatory perspective, while the US lets GAFA handle data management, China maintains state control, and the EU employs a unified legal framework. Japan must decide which direction to align with. Technologically, solutions like AI filtering and digital distribution infrastructures are available. Beyond technology, enhancing literacy education is essential to develop the ability to discern the reliability of information and data and to foster proper digital engagement.

A: What role should governments and media play?

Q: The tasks are numerous, including establishing rules, developing technology, and educating. However, the first step for the government should be to embrace data usage themselves, beginning with simple measures like discontinuing the use of faxes and promoting open data to enable private sector usage.

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Maybe Lose the Fax Machines before Talking about DX??

■ Maybe Lose the Fax Machines before Talking about DX??

At the Digital Nation Japan Forum, I took the stage in a segment on the development of regional DX talent.  

The shortage of IT talent has gone unresolved for 20 years, with 40% of user companies facing shortages. At the same time, transitions from IT company to user company are only increasing. A sense of crisis is emerging in industry, which I view as a positive movement.

iU opened its doors to nurture DX talent. As conventional classroom learning would be ineffective, it is being built together with companies.

Practice trumps knowledge, so all participants learn while engaging in internships or entrepreneurship.

This is but a small-scale model. The intent is to expand such actions in collaboration with numerous schools.

Materials by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications point out four sectors in which Japan's IT utilization lags that overseas: government administration, healthcare, education, and management.　

The problems here are bureaucrats, doctors, teachers, and CEOs.

The problems lie more at the top levels than the bottom levels. Without change at the top, solutions are impossible. Government offices, hospitals, schools, and CEOs must be made to use digital technologies.

In industry-government-academic cooperation in the digital field, academia is the problem. A great gap divides industry and academia in Japan.

To date, the central government bureaucracy has shouldered platform functions in Japan.

The government took the lead in bringing together and guiding companies, in a style that has now reached its end. The role that academia should play is a significant one. The nation's universities should be mobilized.

In the collaboration between the city of Kyotango and iU, universities essentially serve as consultants to collaborate with relevant companies, promote regional government DX, and engage in education for high school students in the city. This is government-industry-academic collaboration at the local level.

Inquiries are coming in from other local governments, seeking advice on setting up similar frameworks.

Such initiatives could be advanced in collaboration with universities in many regions.

And yet.

There is a village in Yamaguchi Prefecture that mistakenly made transfers for 46.3 million yen. The transactions involved the floppy disks that are used by the village on an everyday basis.

That's what "digital" meant for them. Government offices and banks. The leaders in regions.

We talk about DX, but before that, let's use the Internet the way it is normally used.

Let's ditch the fax machines and introduce telework. We can start with these simple things.

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Start of the CiP Metaverse

■ Start of the CiP Metaverse

The opening greetings from the Metaverse Project launch event are as follows.  

The metaverse and Web3.0 have garnered attention as new policy issues.

The transformation of virtual spaces into parallel worlds has been anticipated since the dawn of the Internet.

Now, 25 years since Ultima Online and 15 years since Second Life, significant movement has accumulated.

Facebook's announcement of its rebranding as Meta in 2021 flipped a switch.

The metaverse has become a field drawing in new technologies such as VR, AR, NFTs, and blockchain.

It also becomes a venue for public functions serving education and tourism, along with entertainment such as gaming and music festivals.

The metaverse is envisioned as becoming a place where economic activities and lifestyles unfold, increasing people's dependence on it.

In no time, numerous policy challenges have surfaced.

These include rules for building metaverse spaces, intellectual property rules on issues such as copyright within those spaces, handling of data and personal information, technological standardization, and even taxation system support measures.

Numerous government ministries and agencies will also be involved.

As the metaverse is a borderless space transcending cities and nations alike, the establishment of rules and methods for conflict resolution will also be key topics.

International discussions on these have already begun.

However, reality here has yet to catch up to concepts, and policy discussions remain unfocused.

In discussions, Japan's first Minister for Digital Transformation Takuya Hirai raised troublesome issues like digital ownership rights, and expressed hopes that Japan would take the lead in finding solutions.

Yoshiko Tsuwaki of Japan's Digital Agency stated that the Agency would play a role in coordinating these issues, while Shigeaki Tanaka of the Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters spoke about a soft-law approach to resolving issues of rights.

Minister Hirai, who says that building trust will be important, noted that Japan's earnest approach could be surprisingly helpful in eliminating the "fishiness" inherent in Web3.0. This is yet another major task to tackle. 

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What the Broadcasting Report Indicates

■ What the Broadcasting Report Indicates

I would like to comment on the report from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

Shared use of physical assets: Joint investment by NHK and commercial broadcasters

　In 2006, commercial broadcasters were openly opposed to separation of physical and non-physical aspects. However, Michisada Hirose, chair of the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association at the time, quietly called me aside and expressed a correct understanding that the change would mean the possibility of joint ownership of regional transmission towers. Concrete planning should be carried out already.

IP and cloud adoption

　In the UK, wired/wireless, broadcast, and telecommunications are transmitted in mixed format by both the BBC and commercial broadcasters, with full IP and cloud adoption atop separation of physical and non-physical aspects. From a cost perspective, this is a natural direction. However, while the UK carries this out through a foreign (Swedish) company, how Japan views broadcasting security is a point at issue.

Replacement of relay stations with IP unicasts

 Under both broadcast regulatory structures and the Copyright Act, structures and business in Japan have been distorted by superficial actions such as whether to apply multicast or unicast to network transmission methods. There is now a prime opportunity for a top-to-bottom rethinking of the relationship between technical methods and regulatory structure application.

Elimination of regional restrictions

　Regional restrictions were regulations set against the backdrop of broadcasting's "strength." With the internet now surpassing broadcasting in advertising revenue, however, and amid onslaught by foreign firms, the position of broadcasting has been relativized, and the purpose of placing constraints on the domestic industry is being reevaluated. A move toward relaxation is appropriate.

The positioning of NHK's Internet utilization operations

　NHK should considered Internet utilization among its core, not supplementary, operations, with the aim of transforming itself into a digital media entity akin to the UK's BBC or China's CCTV.

I have no other objections to the report and look forward to the implementation of policy.

At the same time, I find dissatisfaction with two points: the scant mention of "the world" and "data."

Looking first at "the world," amid upheavals in media overseas as in the US, China, and South Korea, what sort of position and strategy should Japan adopt?

What should Japan do with its idiosyncratic regulatory structure?

Japan's meager awareness here has become an international issue.

Then there is "data."

More so than any division between telecommunications and broadcasting, the utilization or non-utilization of data is the challenge faced today.

Internet media entities commercialize data, while broadcasting does not make use of data.

Television, a decade behind in telecommunications convergence, may lag another ten years in data convergence.

I see no awareness of this issue in the report.

What should be questioned before all is individual companies' strategies. What these past 15 years have taught us is that even if regulatory structures are laid out, holes remain unplugged if management does not take action.

What do individual companies intend to do about this? That's what I want to hear.

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Homework in Broadcasting, 15 Years Overdue

■ Homework in Broadcasting, 15 Years Overdue

The Study Group on the Ideal Broadcasting System in the Digital Age of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) released a draft report.

The report recommends a revision of regulatory structures to expand options for management, as well as enhancement of flexibility in physical, content-related, and management aspects.

I concur with this. The report was put together well.

1. Study the shared use of physical assets, including joint investment by NHK and commercial broadcasters.

2. Allow IP and cloud adoption as options.

3. Consider IP unicasts as a possible replacement for relay stations.

4. Eliminate regional restrictions for the exclusion of mass media concentration.

5. Enable the assimilation of broadcast programs across multiple regions.

6. Examine the positioning of NHK's Internet utilization operations.

All of these represent unfinished homework from 15 years ago, postponed following their discussion by the Council on the Ideal for Telecommunications and Broadcasting in 2006 under the Koizumi Cabinet's Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Heizo Takenaka, and its follow-up Study Group on a Comprehensive Legal System for Communications and Broadcasting (in which I participated as a committee member) under the first Abe Cabinet's Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Yoshihide Suga.

The discussions involved significant alteration of the legal framework for telecommunications and broadcasting to enable separation of physical and non-physical aspects and shared use of the telecommunications and broadcasting spectrum, and deregulation aimed at enabling cross-sector services.

On the point of expanding options for management, this aligns with the current study group.

However, nearly no new services or businesses utilizing the new legal framework have come out of the broadcasting industry, and in 15 years the digital market was scooped up by the Internet.

Simultaneous streaming has been implemented over a decade later in Japan than overseas. Regulatory structure remedies have been put in place, with the Copyright Act finally amended last year in response to calls from industry.

The direction proposed by the study group looks past the convergence of telecommunications and broadcasting and picks up remaining points for discussion to aid broadcasters in overcome increasingly difficult circumstances.

It can be seen as a final trimming on the broadcasting regulatory structure.

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Because They Wanted to Introduce Akiko Fuji as a Giant

 2024/11/3

■ Because They Wanted to Introduce Akiko Fuji as a Giant

Shin Ultraman, directed by Shinji Higuchi and supervised by Hideaki Anno, was a masterpiece.

Mr. Anno and I are the same age. Last autumn, I caught up with his doings at an exhibit at The National Art Center Tokyo.

I also once asked Mr. Higuchi, who is four years younger, about his hobbies at a Keio University event.

My attachment to the Ultraman of the 60s is even stronger than to Godzilla of the 50s and Kamen Rider of the 70s.

 

I wanted a Flash Beam. I wanted to wear the Science Special Search Party badge.

Those happy memories are a privilege exclusive to our generation, a paean illuminated by a beam.

I was deeply moved by the movie's inclusion of homages to Ultraman Q.

Gomess, Litra, Peguila, Pagos, Mammoth Flower, Goga.

And Neronga.

I like Neronga.

I want a pet Neronga.

Perhaps the aliens known as Mefilas were given semi-leading roles out of a wish to introduce SSSP Member Akiko Fuji as a giant.

I was reminded of the masterpiece "Giant Member Fuji versus King Ghidorah" by Makoto Aida.

Both Imit-Ultraman and Alien Zarab seemed secondary characters.

Even stars like Alien Baltan and the Kemur Man were intentionally left out,

I got it.

Even a flawless hero can be defeated.

Animosity – and a twisted reverence – toward Zetton. Childhood trauma.

All-out resistance by powerless humans. Childhood hope.

An homage to the impressions left in the hearts of youths, and new iterations.

These were depicted in full.

How far will the younger generation and foreigners go in squarely embracing this?

Neronga, Mephilas, Zetton.

The structure, with its focus on three episodes, also marked a gallant decision to discard the remaining 36 episodes that include Red King, Pigmon, Bullton, Gomora, Dada, and Seabozu.

I spoke with Takayuki Tsukagoshi, the chairman of Tsuburaya Productions, about production of the work.

The movie offered a complete depiction, didn't it.

"No, there's more to come."

Huh?

"We're making more."

Wow.

Hope for tomorrow springs forth.

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Intellectual Property Content Strategy

■ Intellectual Property Content Strategy

I served as the chair of the Content Working Group of the Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters.  

The pillars of its intellectual property plan are as follows,

1) Content strategy for the Web3.0 era, etc.

2) Reform of copyright regulatory structures and related policies in line with the digital era

3) Realization of a digital archive-based society

4) Strengthening of measures against counterfeit products and pirated material

5) Support for video production through improvements to shooting location environments, etc.

Making Web3.0 the top issue was a topic.

The Working Group sounded the alarm over the significant growth in access to pirate websites.

It called for the strengthening of international cooperation and enforcement aimed at implementing comprehensive government measures and cracking down on sites overseas.

A key point was taking a position of placing Web3.0 and user-generated content (UGC) at the forefront, along with past measures for laying the groundwork for rights handling and promotion of overseas expansion.

Discussions also addressed the positioning of global platforms.

While past content policy has been strongly tinged with a negative perception of platforms as invading "black ships," the Working Group affirmed an accurate evaluation of these as global sales channels and providers of funding.

Although Japan has continued to lose out in the area of digital innovations, the view was also put forth that with the coming of Web3.0, opportunities are arriving for leveraging the power of intellectual property such as characters.

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How to Listen to Music

■ How to Listen to Music

In How to Listen to Music, Naoki Tachikawa selects 100 albums from 1975 and 100 from 2021.

These include many songs that I have never listened to or don't know, so I check these one by one.

At the same time, I was excited to also see a lot of songs that I would definitely include if I were doing the selection.

Cornering Mr. Tachikawa when he visited the Okinawa International Movie Festival, I ran my thoughts by him.

Tachikawa's selection for 1975, when he was 26, starts with Syd Barrett.

Why?

"Because I liked him."

The bass line from "Gigolo Aunt" echoes in my head even now.

"It's that sort of song, isn't it."

The work lacks photos of album jackets. Might that be due to copyright issues?

"Actually, it's not clear where the rights reside."

David Bowie.

A photo exhibit was held in Kyoto.

During a P-MODEL live performance at Circus & Circus in front of Ginkakuji around 1980 or so, a slender foreigner in a hunting cap sat next to me.

"That's Bowie," I realized.

A commotion arose during the performance.

Maybe he was in Kyoto to shoot a shochu advertisement.

Perhaps he met Tachikawa-san back then.

Pierre Barouh.

His album Le pollen was produced by Mr. Tachikawa.

Japan was full of energy back then.

"1981. That was when energy was highest."

I liked the song "M.de Furstenberg" by Vivre, and even looked for the park in Paris.

Brigitte Fontaine.

Comme à la radio carries a strong tone of The Art Ensemble of Chicago. I'm torn between it and its predecessor Brigitte Fontaine est... folle! Barouh was a part of both albums.

I went to see her 1988 performance in Japan.

"Did it. Unfortunately, though, it lacked power."

Bryan Ferry.

His set at the Budokan apparently recalled Last Year at Marienbad.

"Bryan grinned like 'a magician doesn't reveal his tricks,' but I guess he hit the nail on the head."

Long ago, I drove from Paris in search of Marienbad in the Czech Republic.

Then there are also a lot of artists like João Gilberto, The Kinks, and Talking Heads, who should be included but aren't.

"Because the work is about selection. Selecting is hard."

In this era of exploding information volume, the ability to select may prove more important than the ability to create.

A DJ selects, combines, and expresses. That's the sort of ability.

"Someone who readies Costello the night before and listens to him while commuting, and someone who listens via streaming services, are fundamentally different people."

"Earphones make you inward-looking. Music should vibrate in the air and be listened to in the open."

"Music is something that connects people. It should be listened to together."

These are words to treasure.

We are flooded with information.

There are people who hate a mess and always keep things neat around them.

"Serge was like that. He always kept his desk neat."

Gainsbourg was a neatness freak! I wanted to see that with my own naked eye.

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The Paraconsistent World

■ The Paraconsistent World

The Paraconsistent World is a book by Jun Sawada, President of NTT.

I underestimated this amazing book.

Amazingly profound ideology and management philosophy underlaid IOWN, the grand technology concept that followed INS, VIP, and NGN.

Appearing amid the DX boom, this digital book connects the opposing sides of digital and analog, global and local, and centralization and decentralization. It accommodates contradictions and conflicts between the pairs as it addresses the shift from trade-offs to paraconsistency (i.e., simultaneous realization).

Posing questions about homogeneous thinking and the data supremacy toward which a logic-centered world has headed since the times of classical Greek philosophy, the book seeks ideas and technologies that fuse East and West.

I would not have imagined that such thinking was the current beneath IOWN.

In a story from 1992, the book relates how Shumpei Kumon and other GLOCOM members gave NTT executives their first introduction to the Internet, only to receive an unfavorable response. This was no surprise, as the technology represented a full-on negation of the existing telecommunications business. Jun 

The book's author, Jun Sawada, reports that he served as the secretariat for the NTT side. A GLOCOM member introduced him to the discussions as "a person destined for importance."

Three decades later, Mr. Sawada had become the president who orchestrated the company's transition to IP and the end to its telephony era.

Shumpei Kumon has recently become disenchanted with Internet society. To address the challenges of surveillance capitalism, social disparities, and information panic, he reportedly issued a call for three reforms: technology, social responsibility, and trust in information.

President Sawada states his intent to address those. This is a dialogue between giants.

NTT is also undertaking surprising management reforms, including the reorganization of its group, the strengthening of telework, and the discontinuation of staff relocation assignments.

President Sawada exerts a steady hand over this, wielding both technology and ideas.

I intend to keep a close eye on how he navigates the post-pandemic turbulence.

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Report of the Commercial Broadcasters Association: In the Midst of Two Wars

■ Report of the Commercial Broadcasters Association: In the Midst of Two Wars

I contributed the foreword to the report from the Digital Network Study Group of the Commercial Broadcasters Association.

　---------

　Humanity today faces unprecedented trials in COVID-19 and Ukraine. We find ourselves in the midst of two wars.

　Across the globe, COVID-19 pushed DX forward several years. Japan acknowledged its defeat in the digital arena and established the Digital Agency. Amid these landslide events, what roles did television and radio play?

　The invasion by Russia sparked the first war involving a major nation in an AI- and data-driven society, the first amid ubiquitous smartphones and social media. Cyber attacks, fake news, digital sanctions... the battlefield of this war is chiefly in the digital arena. What role has broadcasting played in the conflict? Was it able to command a leading role?

　For the first time, spending on online advertising has reportedly exceeded advertising spending in the traditional four media outlets. Even more than the report of 2.7 trillion yen in spending online versus 2.5 trillion yen in the four media outlets, this lumping of television, radio, newspapers, and magazines into "four media outlets" seemed to me the more significant news item. NHK launched simultaneous distribution, Japan's Copyright Act was revised, and commercial broadcasting also began… The landscape underwent periodic shifts in scenery.

　The dichotomy between communications and broadcasting has already outlived its usefulness. A market once worth nothing has grown to the scale of 2.7 trillion yen. The time for looking back on 30 years spent failing to pursue that market is now over. The closed-world dichotomies between commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting, between flagship stations and local stations, will also be swallowed up by the vortex of the global Internet. This is now a time for examining positions within the 70-trillion-yen information market, which encompasses the Internet and the 4-trillion-yen broadcasting market.

　

　Within the government Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters, platforms and the metaverse are under discussion as content strategies. How will the industry address Chinese IT firms' capital investments in Japan, even as it responds to US-based IT firms exemplified by GAFA and Netflix? How will it meet the surging waves of new technologies such as the metaverse and NFTs? These, too, point to shifts in scenery. How will the broadcasting industry answer those?

　The industry passed through multimedia in the 90s and through the Internet and terrestrial digital broadcasting in the 2000s without drawing up a big picture. The consequences of this can be seen in the turmoil of the present. The private sector draws up strategy that takes in media as a whole. Such efforts are needed in the broadcasting industry as well.

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Where is NHK Heading?

■ Where is NHK Heading?

We spoke at the "Where is NHK Heading?" forum. 

This involved a discussion centered around NHK's management plan.

Japanese TV is weakening. It is 15 years behind in its digital compatibility, a classic case of digital defeat. 

The internet is dominated not only by Big Tech like Netflix and Disney, but also by Chinese companies like Tencent. 

While BBC operates 10 domestic TV channels and 3 international channels, and China's CCTV has 20 channels plus 5 in foreign languages, how does NHK fare? 

We need to consider how NHK catch onto both digital trends and global outreach.

Discussing a dual system for uniformly excellent domestic programming makes it seem like we are debating the merits of the Meiji era's feudal system of the shogunate and domains. 

NHK's budget of 700 billion yen should not be considered just within the 4 trillion yen broadcasting framework, but within Japan's 70 trillion yen information market.

Currently, there is no clear vision or outlook for what NHK should be or where it should end up. 

Thus, discussions tend to focus on minor issues like whether to reduce the number of broadcast waves or slightly decrease fees. 

We need to think about how to position NHK within the broader digital media landscape, including the internet.

Does NHK want to be like the BBC or CCTV, or does it want to change from the H in NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai), where H means broadcast in Japanese, into something like the Japan Media Association or Japan Digital Association? 

These are discussions worth having. 

I have scribbled down a rough reform proposal. 

NHK Media Holdings can be divided into three sectors: hardware, software, and a lab. 

Hardware, software, and contents should be managed as intellectual property for all programs, which would then be distributed by the hardware network. 

Everything would be managed in the cloud, including data collection.

Broadcasting can be done using just a few channels, while the internet should stream news, education, drama, and other content on dozens of channels. This will be similar to China’s CCTV, where specialized channels can be internationally broadcasted. 

Core operations can be funded by the NHK’s standard license fee up to this point. 

This approach might even allow the usual license fee to be halved or allow for funding reallocation towards production costs.

Other network operations could include paid on-demand services and the metaverse.

NHK could build a metaverse where e-commerce and advertising strategies could be deployed.

The lab will be a technology and cultural research institute of great value. 

I would love to see it leverage its competitive edge by collaborating with corporations and universities.

Japan has traditionally maintained a unified broadcast model aligning hardware and software. 

The UK, including both BBC and commercial broadcasters, has moved towards a separation of hardware and software for all management to take place in the cloud. 

There are rumors that the BBC might end its broadcast signal output, and the discussions for abolishing its license fee system are dynamic.

The playing field has already changed. 

The convergence of communications and broadcasting has wrapped up. 

News that advertising revenues of six trillion yen and internet revenues of 2.7 trillion yen have surpassed the 2.5 trillion yen from four traditional media types illustrates a market that grew from zero to 2.7 trillion yen in 30 years. 

Although Japan failed to seize this market.

How we perceive what’s happening now will affect the strategies going forward. Is it an era of peace or wartime? Are we on a continuum or at a turning point? I see it as a turning point during times of war. 

The digital transformation during COVID-19 made us recognize this failure to seize the digital market, but it's unclear what will happen with television broadcasting. 

In Ukraine, amidst fake news and cyber-attacks where digital platforms are the main battleground, what are broadcasters doing in response?

The question of what to do with NHK might best be approached by planning as if in hindsight and asking ourselves how we would design NHK if it did not exist.

Rather than criticizing NHK, I want discussion veered towards an expansion of the information space that includes NHK and broadcasting as a whole.

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3D Urban Model × Urban DX

■3D Urban Model × Urban DX

We presented at the "3D Urban Model × Urban DX" event. 

The CiP Council, responsible for new urban developments at the intersection between the real and virtual world, initiated a plan in 2013 to create a digital agglomeration special zone spanning 20 hectares in Tokyo's Takeshiba area, which was officially opened in 2020. 

The plan involved fully implementing cutting-edge technologies. 

Numerous robots are put to work here, and telexistence jobs can also be done. 

Over 1000 sensors embedded about to collect and utilize data, and this information is displayed on digital signage boards. 

There is no other example of a smart building operating on such an integrated scale worldwide.

However, the advent of COVID-19 changed everything. 

As we were pushing for aggregation, COVID-19 demanded decentralization.

We need to create a new balance between centralization and decentralization, a "New Normal" that is more appealing than the pre-COVID environment. 

Just as the Renaissance emerged after the 14th century plague, we must consider what will be revived after COVID-19. 

This is the pending issue that has been posed upon CiP. 

The plan is to connect the areas from Takeshiba to Toyosu, Harumi, Odaiba, and around Haneda in a comprehensive manner via rail, cars, bicycles, boats, drones, and digital means. 

As tech and pop hubs are being planned in various locations, we aim to advance the creation of a connected “PopTech archipelago,” and we are progressing collaborative measures with Nagoya, Kyoto, and other cities, as well as international partnerships with Seoul, Barcelona, and Shanghai. 

Simultaneously, the challenge is to shift from horizontal to vertical expansions, with implementation of the metaverse and digital twin models.

Subsequent questions:

What’s possible with digital twin models?

There have been reports about the creation of a government-in-exile for Ukraine, while Estonia has developed an e-government that ensures the nation persists digitally even if physically invaded.

Japan could also consider creating a digital twin in anticipation of potential submersion from natural disaster.

Moreover, it would be great to see warfare restricted to the metaverse.

What is necessary for Urban DX?

Data is embedded into a physical space to help in understanding congestion in toilets and stores, and aids in disaster prevention—this is useful. 

On the other hand, in the virtual space, we have Pokémon GO—this is interesting. 

Urban DX in both real and virtual spaces should combine these aspects: being both useful and interesting.

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AI Creates Everyone's School Songs!

■ AI Creates Everyone's School Songs!

The “Super School Song” project, a joint research endeavor between BLab and RIKEN AIP, has launched. 

AI will develop models for school song, which can be adopted as official school anthems from the elementary to university levels or used to arrange existing school songs. 

https://lp.blaboratory.org/choukouka

School songs have successfully grown to be a unique aspect of Japanese school culture. Their origin is said to be part of the educational reforms of the Meiji government, introduced to unify values and ideologies, and later spread as “songs of the locals.” 

In the Reiwa era (2019 onward), a century later, we explore the variety of school songs we want to hear and sing.

iU will adopt AI-generated music as its school song. 

Although there are already school songs like, “Let's Go iU" by Shōnen Knife, this will serve as the new school anthem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwe_zUKU4Yg

The project will also study the issue of copyright related to AI-generated works. 

The government and the Intellectual Property Headquarters previously debated the rights to AI-generated works for two years, getting ahead of the rest of the world in this discussion, but it was postponed without conclusion. 

With the reality of AI now emerging, it's time to raise these issues.

RIKEN AIP is responsible for development of the AI music generation and a comprehensive school song mapping and arrangement system.

BLab will be coordinating the research concept and public awareness to involve schools nationwide, including joint examination of copyright for AI-generated content.

RIKEN AIP, headed by Professor Masashi Sugiyama at the University of Tokyo, is a leading center for AI research in Japan, and I serve as the coordinator. 

The project is led by Team Leader Masatoshi Hamanaka, who studies the “Generative Theory of Tonal Music (GTTM)." 

It was also recently announced that Tetsuya Komuro will be taking up the post as visiting principal researcher.

BLab is iU's research institute, directed by Nanako Ishido. 

Beyond, Borderless, Breakthrough.

This is a participatory platform that connects universities, research institutes, regions, and talent worldwide, leveraging everyone's knowledge and skills to create technology, services, content, business, and society.

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Addressing the Theme of "Culture × Economy"

■ Addressing the Theme of "Culture × Economy"

A new Cultural Economy Subcommittee has been established within the Agency for Cultural Affair’s Council for Cultural Affairs, aiming for a harmonious cycle between culture and the economy. The integration of economic principles into cultural policy introduces fresh perspectives into the cultural and artistic community.

The globalization of museums and art galleries is a hot topic. 

While it is common for cities like Paris, London, and New York to feature museums as main tourist attractions, how many tourists are actually coming to Japan with the goal of visiting art museums.

In terms of cultural policy, France and South Korea stand out. Both countries lead with government-driven initiatives and significant funding. 

Japan should also prioritize its policies more highly and invest accordingly. 

However, while France focuses on high culture and inbound ventures, South Korea emphasizes pop culture and outbound strategies. 

The strategies may differ, Japan would likely benefit from adopting a South Korea-like approach.

I strongly advocate for expanding the scope of cultural arts, moving from the conventional thought of art = high culture to encompassing pop culture and digital user-generated content (UGC) within the political realm. Although approaches to these political measures may vary, policy aims should be developed while considering the overall portfolio at large which align with national objectives.

Japan's global cultural footprint is overwhelmingly dominated by anime and games,  with Japanese culture being known through these. 

One of the most renowned artists is Hatsune Miku, born from digital UGC, targeting not the affluent but a broader audience. 

This reality must have an influence on decided political measures.

From the West and Asia to the Islamic world and Africa, and excluding Disney, Japanese anime and games are common topics among the global youth in respect to their cultural impact. 

If you ask for names of known Japanese artists, the answers are likely to be anime and game creators and video game composers. 

Policies should be drafted with this recognition in mind.

Researchers around the world, particularly those studying otaku (nerd) cultures, have noted that Japanese pop culture have transcended racial, religious, and political boundaries, fostering global harmony. 

We should recognize and value this asset.

This claim was accepted, broadening the scope to cover cultural policy and discussing it in the context of soft power and solving global issues.

The report highlights talent development and retention as key challenges. 

The issue isn't in production, as people are being trained, but there's a lack of individuals who can produce, manage, and promote these cultural products.

This has been a longstanding concern noted by the Intellectual Property Headquarters and the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, indicating a need for harmonious policy efforts.

Thus, the challenge has evolved beyond merely enhancing art and film schools, to how departments of economics and MBA courses can engage with the cultural industry. Strategic consideration must be given to identifying the intended audience of this report.

Design thinking has now become widely recognized among those at the management level.

Moreover, "art thinking" and "art management" have emerged as buzzwords in the business world. 

Magazines are even featuring articles on why global business leaders should study art. The goal is to refine these policies to the point of gaining agreement and endorsement from those in the management field.

This also emphasizes the importance of improved understanding and enhanced response by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, foreign embassies, and related organizations.

 Consequently, this leads to discussions on how law and economics departments can integrate design and art into their curricula, or the extent to how many designers and artists should be employed.

This area requires a shift in policy thinking.

The policy of "Cultural Economy" is still nascent and just about to take off. 

These thoughts shared by cultural and arts experts alone lacks the reach needed. It is vital that those outside these circles recognize its importance. 

The biggest challenge will be the promotion of these policies.

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Book Review: Human Rights and the State

■ Book Review: Human Rights and the State

Written by Kiyoteru Tsutsui, Professor at the Stanford University Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), "Human Rights and the State" delves into the paradox of international politics that allowed the development of a human rights system constraining state power.

● During World War II, out of the 50 to 80 million casualties, 40 to 50 million were civilians.

● At that time, while the U.S. (Japanese internment), Britain (colonial response), and the USSR (Stalinist oppression) were involved, China was the most committed to human rights.

→ The cruelty towards civilians and the position from which state powers stood shows that neither the West nor the East has been consistent, and even today, there is no firm doctrine.

● After 9/11, the U.S. invasion of Iraq proceeded without a UN resolution.

● The U.S. justified the abuses at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons in Iraq.

→ My frustration stems from still not being able to digest this.

Twenty years ago, Japan, which supported America, now questions the legitimacy of condemning Russia.

Russia faces sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine.

Iraq bore the brunt of America's invasion of Iraq.

Syria was blamed for Russia's intervention in the Syrian civil war.

Palestine bore the consequences of Israel's invasion.

Iraq was responsible for its 1991 invasion of Kuwait.

How can we properly explain the justice and legitimacy of each situation?

It's beyond my capacity.

Looking forward, if Japan were invaded, depending on its positions and power relations, it might also end up being blamed without being saved.

This makes me inclined to listen to the criticisms by the Middle Eastern that the West's attitude in this matter is a double standard.

● Russia has experience and know-how in top-down oppression, but the backlash against human rights and divisiveness from the grassroots in America are challenging to address.

→ What concerns me is grassroots oppression in Japan. A state prevails where intolerance hangs in the air, and oppression of others is seen as justice.

It was brought to my attention that in previous wars, there were citizens who wished for war and were enthusiastic about invasions, along with surveillance and oppression among the people.

To understand this current conflict, we must ask ourselves if we have improved at all?

What should we be learning from this situation?

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Intellectual Property Plan, Deliberations in Final Stages.

■ Intellectual Property Plan, Deliberations in Final Stages.

The Intellectual Property Headquarters Concept Committee has discussed the intellectual property plan.

Three comments are made:

1. Overall Scope

The focus on data utilization rules and supports such as the metaverse/NFTs will be well-received.

Particularly, the latter is not yet firmly established in policy, but it is important to recognize it as a key issue. We want to adopt a proactive approach in anticipation of these supports becoming a global theme.

2. Content Strategy

The societal digital transformation accelerated by COVID-19 presents both a significant opportunity and a substantial shift for content creation. It is important to recognize that we are now at a turning point rather than merely an extension of the past. Three key points are:

1) How to deal with investments from Chinese IT companies in Japan, alongside addressing the dominance of American platforms from Big Tech.

2) How to incorporate emerging technologies such as the metaverse and NFTs into policy discussions.

3) There are likely structural changes and regulatory shifts in the broadcasting industry, provided the ongoing discussions within the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. It is crucial to consider how these changes affect the content creation side.

These issues require a peculiar strategic approach rather than traditional copyright handling or international expansion.

How we hand these within the ongoing discussions will be crucial.

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BS Yoshimoto = Sumida Media Lab Open!

■ BS Yoshimoto = Sumida Media Lab Open!

The IU Film Studio "Sumida Media Lab" has opened on the IU campus.

It operates in collaboration with the broadcasting station "BS Yoshimoto." 

This studio produces and broadcasts/distributes programs and video content in a large-scale shooting and streaming studio, thus equipping the university for content creation.

"BS Yoshimoto" is based on the concept of "regional revitalization," featuring comedians living nationwide, YouTubers working in various regions, film directors, journalists, and local residents to broadcast programs like local attractions or news that offer hints for revitalizing areas and solving regional issues.

Through the national broadcast network, this station will become one venture that aims to create channels with the goal of "one broadcast, one business started," where programs generate new businesses and employment opportunities. 

"We've emulated IU's 'everyone an entrepreneur,' motto" says Yoshimoto's chairman Osaki. 

This is a challenge to create a broadcasting station that generates business without depending on advertisers.

BS Yoshimoto is primarily owned by Yoshimoto Kogyo, but it is also a digital consortium with capital investment from UUUM, J-Stream, Transcosmos, and Mixi. 

It aims to go beyond broadcasting and communication convergence to offer data-driven services that blend virtual and real elements.

IU will utilize this facility to the fullest for education and research.

1.　To be leveraged for a creative educational approach.

Students will be involved in video production and distribution, and it will serve as a tool for entrepreneurship related to regional revitalization.

IU's research institute "B Lab" will also be integrated to use it as a platform for broadcasting joint research with industry-academia collaboration.

2. To create university-centered content.

Web, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok...

While IU is already promoting itself through various media, by having its own studio, broadcast station, and also setting up a physical base, it aims to demonstrate a model where "the university becomes the media."

Shōnen Knife became famous worldwide when they topped the charts for colleges on a U.S. college-based FM radio station. This goes to show that college broadcast stations have impact.

FM Tokyo was created by Tokai University. Radiko is a project started by my lab at Keio University. There aren't many other university-originated media in Japan yet.

3. To serve as a regional collaboration hub.

The studio is located on university grounds, adjacent to a vast vacant grass lot.

We're keeping the area open without fencing, accessible to everyone.

The Chiba University Department of Architectural Design is also adjacent for shared use.

We plan to use the entire area to launch events like festivals and markets.

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Jen Perry "Raincoats".

 ■ Jen Perry "Raincoats".

The Japanese translation for a four-year-old book, written about the 1979 debut in the UK of an all-girls band, was published at the end of 2021.

This is what I consider and revere, alongside PiL, as punk.

The full album is available to listen on YouTube, so please at least give the first track a chance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQlX3jgAbvc

Go Punk. This is my topic.

I define "punk" as "destroy to create."

It's about overturning history, tradition, and lineage to create something new.

It involves breaking style, fashion, legitimacy, and common sense to build anew on what remains.

Once what's been overturned to create anew has then become stylized and fashionable, it's no longer punk; it turns into a target to make punk.

That's why punk is hard to sustain.

The punk music born after the start of punk is like enka (a traditional-style of Japanese popular ballads), and punk fashion is the traditional dress accompanying it.

The Raincoats were punk only up to their second album in 1981, as was PiL. Which is just enough.

The Raincoats. Drums, guitar, bass, violin, vocals.

Each part is independent in their own free spirited way, yet synchronizes.

Precariously delicate, suddenly fierce, and screaming.

One part rushes while another loosens up, playing with dissonance, achieving unity.

It miraculously works.

Dressed in plain everyday clothes, their sound is the true essence of being completely exposed.

Giving the soul a straightforward ride in a distorted, non-linear way.

Wild and minimal, opposite of pretentious artistry.

That’s why conventional rock fans and critics often harshly criticize it.

This is punk.

Oddly unique and standing apart.

Yet neither soaring at the pinnacle nor incomprehensible, but popular.

An irreplaceable presence gleaming in the rich nook of our world.

Perhaps it makes sense if I compare it to Henri Rousseau's paintings, Tsuge Tadao's manga, Ichiyo Higuchi's novels, or Pasolini's films.

Guitar (Ana da Silva) from Madeira, Portugal.

Bass (Gina Birch) from Andalusia, Spain.

Drums (Palmolive) from Nottingham, UK.

Violin (Vicky Aspinall) from South Africa.

Although I have no interest in the political aspect conducted by these girls from the countryside, the music they create is very much universal.

The all-girls lineup was only for the first album in 1979; from the second in 1981, a man joined on drums, changing the dynamic.

In the meantime, in 1980, John Lydon of PiL declared, “Rock’n’roll is shit … music has reached an all-time low – except for The Raincoats.”

PiL and The Raincoats were both making waves in London at the same time.

I, too, took in that atmosphere in London.

This book also serves as a mirror reflecting my youth.

In 1981, I raised my hand for an initiative by the Kyoto Yamashiro Lions Club, chaired by the president of Fukujuen’s Iemon, Mr. Fukui, and went on a short study abroad trip to the UK.

Amidst the light and shadow of London, turbulent due to the "British disease," yet energetic for the Royal Wedding, I walked the streets listening to PiL and The Raincoats on the first model Walkman.

That winter, upon my return, Shōnen Knife was formed.

Kurt Cobain of Nirvana loved both Shōnen Knife and The Raincoats.

In 1992, Nirvana and Shōnen Knife toured the UK together.

That same year, The Raincoats were also scheduled to tour the UK with them.

Just a week before the tour began, Kurt Cobain committed suicide with a shotgun.

During the summer of 1981 in London, I eagerly bought up singles from Rough Trade Records discussed in this book.

Cabaret Voltaire, Peru Ubu, Kleenex, The Pop Group, Young Marble Giants, The Slits.

And Scritti Politti, treated much like The Raincoats’ group.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn4HC2Dfm_k

Scritti Politti became a popular, rhythmic pop band in the 1980s, but they were a punk band only with their 1979 singles.

Their 16mm films of that era still remain on YouTube.

I bought those two singles seen in the below footage; they are so precious to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn4HC2Dfm_k

The reason I’m recounting my story from 40 years ago is that there hasn't been a musical impact that surpasses that era.

Alternative, grunge, hip-hop. J-POP, K-POP.

Even though rock has evolved since then, I remain frozen in the moment of 1979-1981.

Perhaps it was a blessing to have been showered in such profound influence during a sensitive period.

As punk, such as The Raincoats, is revisited on its 40th anniversary, one wonders why this book now.

Perhaps it’s because contemporaries like myself are aging and reaching our final years.

Punk emerged 30–40 years after rock's genesis, when expression had become saturated.

Now, 40 years later, have we reached another impasse? Is that why there’s a reassessment?

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A new fusion of content and media

■A new fusion of content and media

Content policy began in the 90s, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications handled it in a disorganized way, but an IP Division was established in 2003, leading to horizontal control.

In the 2010s, transformation to digital became a major talking point.

Our response was delayed compared to overseas, but in the past few years, the shift in the industry has become clear, and results are showing.

However, before we even noticed, overseas IT media has become a threat, in the form of piracy for manga, overseas distribution such as Netflix for anime, cloud-based games such as Google, and moving to platforms such as Spotify for music.

Also, countermeasures differ depending on the genre, such as anti-piracy measures for manga, development of new areas such as e-sports for games, and copyright processing rules for music.

National policies are also individual and small, and no comprehensive policy can be found. Measures across genres that collaborate with other fields are important.

As discussed in the Cool Japan Strategy, cooperation with other industries such as food, fashion, and tourism will also become important.

That is, “fusion” is an important issue. 

On the other hand, media policy entered the digital age in the 80s after a clash between computer policy from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and communications policy from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, and the development of the Internet was a topic of discussion in the 90s, as was the development of terrestrial digital broadcasting in the 2000s.

After the reform and deregulation of the communications and broadcasting legal system in the Koizumi administration, “fusion” became an important theme.

Simultaneous distribution of television has finally recently become a reality, over 10 years behind other countries, and the Copyright Act has also been amended.

It looks as if it has been settled.

However, in this respect as well, before we knew it, in addition to the Big Four, Netflix and Disney came to pin down the world in the media market.

The fusion of communications and broadcasting had ended.

We have shifted to a theme of all-IP and all-cloud, and data and AI play the main role in business.

The majority of advertisements will be targeted advertisements made using data and AI, game consoles will become unnecessary due to the cloud, and broadcasting will be done over 5G.

I see no strategy that considers these comprehensively.

Overseas players will develop roll out data businesses in a borderless way, both for content and for media.

Chinese capital looks poised to make serious moves.

This capital is also being invested in Japanese content.

How will Japanese players deal with this? Sink or swim?

Previously, content and media, software and hardware were one and the same.

Equipment manufacturers made music records, and game console companies produced content as platform holders.

However, there have recently been many cases where the hardware and software industries are opposed to each other, whether it be for audio recording royalties or anti-piracy measures.

Fusion of the two is an issue as well.

Examining genres separately and individual policies such as copyright will no longer yield the best solution.

I want a perspective across both content and media.

We will need to fuse IP policy and IT policy and propose cultural industrial policy.

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A new round for content strategy.

 ■A new round for content strategy.

A new round starts at the IP Division. 

A recent action is strategies for content utilization. 

The direction that I laid out as chairperson was given to the Cultural Affairs Council for deliberation, and was summarized as “Copyright systems and policies compatible with the DX era”

There is also movement on anti-piracy measures.

In addition to finding piracy sites guilty, advertising agencies have been ordered to pay compensation to writers.

The Copyright Act has been revised in advance of this, and measures are being taken by all three branches: administrative, legislative, and judiciary.

And content strategy.

I agree with the perspective of define future predictions as 1. virtual space, 2. UGC, and 3. changes in industrial structures.

It is timely to focus on these three as policy themes for content that has been affected in two waves, namely coronavirus and technological changes, and the three are interrelated.

1. The metaverse will be a battle on a new platform. How should we confront US IT companies such as the Big Four and Netflix as Chinese companies such as Tencent also invest capital in Japan?

2. Concerning UGC, rumor has it that YouTube will provide NFT functionality, but will a new revenue/rights model be established, and how will asset values of content be organized?

3. Concerning industrial structures, while consolidation and restructuring of US media progresses, a review of the NHK’s management structure and the licensing system for commercial broadcasters is now being discussed in Japan as well at meetings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. There is a high probability that not only will content change, but the media industry as well.

I think we should summarize the policies prior to the coronavirus and move forward.

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Broadcasting systems have finally come an important point.

■Broadcasting systems have finally come an important point.

Broadcasting has been treated as an isolated and special position, both in industry and in government, so it has fallen out of the economic value chain and is now in trouble.

The meetings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ conference are treated as broadcasts in the diverse information space, including the Internet, and question the diversity, pluralism, and local properties of culture found there. This is the correct understanding.

In consideration of the deficit of local sites, what should be done about the number and scale of businesses?

Do domestic regulations aimed at eliminating the concentration of mass media from the era when Japan was thriving still mean something?

Things that I have always seen as problems are being discussed in public.

The NHK is also weighing the value of its existence against license fees.

A proposal to make its primary business simultaneous online distribution, as an entity responsible for basic information.

As talk of abolishing BBC license fees in the UK is coming up, it seems that the debate on NHK manner of existence will be taken seriously at last.

Joint ownership of infrastructure between the NHK and commercial broadcasters has also been proposed.

Amendments to the Broadcasting Act that permit NHK simultaneous distribution created an obligation of cooperation between the NHK and commercial broadcasters relating to online deployment, but the foundation for rolling out data business can be created using NHK license fees.

Copyright is also a topic of discussion. A discussion about facilitating rights processing by treating both IP multicast (broadcasting) and unicast (communications), which are handled separately, as broadcasting. The past decision to separate systems based on distribution technology was fundamentally flawed. It took us 20 years to realize.

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Wavering digital utilization and a business law framework.

■Wavering digital utilization and a business law framework.

Amendments to the Telecommunications Business Act are unstable.

1. Institutional development process

The procedure being hasty was presented as problematic by a portion of the industry.

As the state of the world changes rapidly and drastically in this field, it is a matter of the speed and coordination required for preparation of the requisite legal system.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has now held 16 meetings in 10 months, and vigorous discussions continue. It is not hasty in the slightest.

Despite that, a limited gathering of 10 selected experts met once or twice per month to deliberate, but submitted proposals were met with opposition from the business world, leading to readjustments.

This begs the question of whether that process will continue to be valid.

The same is true for coordination outside the conference room.

The lobbying power of the industry is demonstrated, but how will the voices of users, who are supposed to play the main role, be ensured and reflected?

Is the black box coordination in Kasumigaseki that occurs appropriate, not only in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, but also the Personal Information Protection Commission, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Digital Agency, etc.?

I feel that it is being asked what form of policymaking is suitable for the digital and open era.

The reason for creating the “Digital Policy Forum,” too, is that we believed that a place where experts, stakeholders, policy makers, and others could openly participate and have discussions “constantly” is necessary.

2. Business laws and usage laws

It has been 37 years since the enactment of the Telecommunications Business Act. Now it has been proposed to make businesses that were previously exempt subject to regulatory rules. This is a major shift in legal framework, or policy.

The former Public Telecommunications Act (Public Act) was a law on how usage of NTT equipment of the Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation.

The Telecommunications Business Act (Business Act) was enacted to promote and manage, as a business, the development and sophistication of communications equipment.

It is a framework that 1. regulates and manages telecommunications carriers that have line equipment, yet 2. encourages telecommunications companies, or providers, that do not have them to participate with minimal regulations, and 3. excludes: businesses that do not act as media for telecommunications: exempts databases, the web, commerce, etc.

In the 80s and 90s, competition policies for telecommunications carriers were so effective that they served as a model overseas. We became an infrastructure superpower.

In the latter half of the 90s, due to the spread of the Internet, the main role shifted from 1. the infrastructure layer to 2. the service layer. Significant deregulation was performed.

Then, in the 2010s, the center of gravity shifted to 3. the application layer, that is, the exempt region.

With deployment of the application layer and recognition of user protections as an important issue, two “Consumer” Policy Divisions have been established at the Telecommunications “Business” Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

Measures for Internet use safety and the like have increased in depth.

So now, user protections are the goal, and action will be taken for the application layer, which was previously exempt.

Protect users with the Business Act. As the focus shifts from the initial regulation of infrastructure equipment to services and then applications and we trend toward user-based policy and the focus shifts toward user administration, the question arises whether the Business Act is fine as is.

A large legal framework theory in the form of a shift to usage laws, or a return to the Public Act, may also be in question.

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A digital policy forum starting 20 years after reorganization of the central government

■A digital policy forum starting 20 years after reorganization of the central government

It has been 20 years since the reorganization of the central government. It also marks 20 years of digitalization. The “Digital” Agency finally being born as a result of such speaks to the slowness of Japan’s progress, but the fact that funds, laws, and personnel were gather in such a short period of time to launch it is a remarkable feat that is a testament to the horsepower remaining in this country.

In 1997, Hashimoto’s administrative reforms dissolved the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and issued an interim report that communications and broadcasting would be handled by an independent regulatory commission. Movements aiming to merge with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry or unify with the Ministry of Transport arose within the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. The former was a movement viewing communications policy as industrial policy, and the latter was a movement viewing such as infrastructure policy.

As a result of political coordination, it ended up as an internal bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. This is because the understanding that communications policy is horizontal administration across all fields, rather than vertical administration for industry and infrastructure, won out.

However, horizontal administration by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications did not make progress. The IT division was placed in the Cabinet Secretariat in an attempt to demonstrate horizontal power, but the two major issues laid out in the eJapan strategy of 20 years ago, namely, administrative and educational computerization, are the same as the two major issues laid out in last year’s Basic Policy. There has been no progress.

The digital defeat laid bare by coronavirus. Both government and education are inferior to overseas. There are grave delays in the public sector, including medical care. Rather, management DX, including telework, is not progressing. Is this not the result of all the winners of the Showa era, the world-leading such and such, rejecting DX for the entire Heisei era because they were the winners?

It would be cruel to place the blame on the country. It is a defeat for “everyone.” However, what digital policymakers should regret is the lack of power during that time to raise the priority of digital policy to the top of national policy. What made us aware of our defeat and made digital king was coronavirus, not digital proponents.

What organization is responsible for digital policy? Ever since the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications was established as a compromise, I have advocated for establishment of a “Ministry of Culture” as the next step. It is a vertically and horizontally integrated government office that governs administration of communications/broadcasting, computer/software, IT/intellectual property, and culture/copyright.

This is largely the same as the Ministry of Information, Economy and Society that the Japan Business Federation advocated for in 2018, but I am not claiming copyright. My sense for naming is better. Wouldn’t a government office with such a long name be second rate?

The Digital Agency, suddenly established in the wake of defeat, is the offspring of digital becoming top priority, and we should welcome it.

However, the Ministry of Culture or the Ministry of Information, Economy, and Society is the lowest common denominator of digital policy, but the Digital Agency, which concentrates on administrative computerization, is the greatest common divisor. The outcome of turning it into an organization was exactly the opposite.

Therefore, its mission is sharp. If the entire government goes through DX, the role of the Digital Agency will end. The mission of the Digital Agency is to work diligently and dissolve quickly.

Conversely, who should undertake the role of fostering a permanent digital social economy, which is entrusted to the concept of the Ministry of Culture. Defeated countries cannot afford to waste time reorganizing vertical government offices over and over.

The reason why we started the “Digital Policy Forum” made by collaboration between industry, academia, and government at the same time as the launch of the Digital Agency is to create, with “everyone,” players who embrace that idea. I pray that this attempt will serve as a step toward recovery.

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