Japan's Internet coolness

 The NHK program "Cool Japan" has celebrated its 10th year since it started airing.
 The theme of the program that day was "Internet communication". 
◯CJ represents the discussion points made by Cool Japan, whereas ● represents the comments that I made on the program.

◯CJ: What are the special characteristics of Internet communication in Japan?

●People from all over the world are using the Internet via their smartphones now, but Japan achieved that much earlier, with connections between mobile phones and the Internet being made in Japan 15 years ago. From that point onwards, it has always been on the vanguard of the world in developing ways to use the Internet.

◯CJ: In Japan, 90% of students currently use Twitter, and 75% of the general public currently use Facebook. Although we can see that the Japanese regularly use them, foreigners find the following points strange about Japan.
• Japanese people frequently post photos of food. All 3 of their meals.
• They post either anonymously or under nicknames.
• They are highly prolific on the Internet, although they do not speak much when they are face to face.

●According to government data, 5% of Japanese people write things online using their real name. 95% of them write either anonymously or with an on-screen name.
I believe that there are 2 factors contributing to why we love anonymity. Firstly, we are poor at asserting ourselves. After all, showing off one's knowledge and intelligence to humiliate another party by cold reasoning is contrary to what is perceived as good virtues.
Another factor is the separation of one's "public self" and "private self" in Japan. We have always been living in a world where only our "public selves" were expressed. Although we can express our "private selves" on the Internet, even then we are unable to do so without first concealing our identity.
However, the more important thing is that the Internet has finally allowed us to gain a method for us to express our "private selves", albeit on the condition of anonymity. As such, we now communicate information of the highest quality in the world. I believe that it is exactly because we formerly lived in a world of our "public selves" that there was a high incentive to communicate over the Internet in Japan.

◯CJ: Please have a look at LINE. Parents, children, and friends are communicating through stamps. Could this have been spurred by manga and anime culture, or the so-called "kanji culture"?

●Even in the age of mobile phones before the rise of smartphones, people in Japan have loved to send pictures via the mail client Deco-mail, and have always been creating smileys and emoticons not seen elsewhere in the world.
Japan is a country where the expression of data through means other than words is common. We have symbols like that on family quests, and we use onomatopoeic words as well as mimetic words in our speech, so we are experts at non-rational communication. Hence, we tend to want to use stamps and smileys as means to complement our words.

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"Strategic Shift"

  I have read "Strategic Shift" by Yoko Ishikura, a former professor at the Graduate School of Media Design of Keio University. The book explains how corporate strategies in the future will move from OR choices to the AND paradigm by means of open systems.

 The pursuit of profits or corporate responsibility, global or local, mega-hits or the long tail, masses or individuals. According to Ishikura, these contradicting ideas that once had an OR relationship will become able to coexist with each other in the AND paradigm, and ICT will play a part in increasing those possibilities. The important thing here is the importance placed on the power of ICT, and I believe that this is what Japanese business owners lack.

 Ishikura says that in the 80s, Japan took the lead in the world by marrying the mutually opposing concepts of quality and cost in an AND relationship, and even from a historical perspective, there were times when Japan had a dual nature of accepting various cultures as well, in order to make the best use of their capabilities. The strengths of Japan, she explains, are its thriving manufacturing prowess its soft assets, such as hospitality and attention to detail. In addition, she mentions that Japan has an exceptional ability to accept diversity and value an AND coexistence. I agree to all her points.

 Lego Mindstorm, which was involved with MIT in its development, makes an appearance as an example of open systems. Although I was working in the team at that point in time, I was not conscious or cognizant of that fact at the time.

 Ishikura explains that it is critical for corporations to achieve a balance between how open or closed their systems are in their strategies concerning intellectual property, and the key to that is "logic". She raises examples of corporations that did not make good use of logic, such as NTT DoCoMo, which ignored the international market while developing i-mode, and Sony, which was obsessed with protecting its own software despite seeing the possibility of digital distribution.

 The book also compares the contrast between the relatively open Silicon Valley, and the self-sufficient, closed Route 128 on the outskirts of Boston. It also makes the analysis that engineers are investing in the former area as venture capitalists, whereas investment banks make up the main bulk of investments in the latter area. As I have been involved in both Boston (MIT) and Stanford (Silicon Valley), I personally experienced the atmosphere in both vicinities.

 This book also pays attention to Kyoto as a cluster. With the presence of both technology and culture, the small size of its market, its rebellious spirit, and links with universities… Yes, even the fact that the Stanford Japan Center is based in Kyoto is because it has recognized the potential of Kyoto as a cluster. Once again, I plan on keeping my eye on Kyoto too.

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Smart broadcasting in the present

 The Internet and Digital Research Institute of the Commercial Broadcasters' Association has just held an event. As the chairman of this institute, I investigated combined plans for transmission and broadcasting together with 8 commercial broadcasting companies that were part of the membership.
 3 years ago, discussions within the Research Institute were mainly about how Japan should deal with the overseas import of smart televisions from Google and Apple. The talks were about IT incorporating TV.
 2 years ago, the focus of the discussions was linking TV and smartphones together to create a second screen. The matter at hand was the method that could be used to build up Japanese IT+TV services.
 The previous year, discussions shifted to Japan's offensive. Discussions were made about how TV broadcasters could use IT to its best, and how they could provide IT services on their part.
 This time, after looking at the various initiatives implemented by the television broadcasters, I found that the respective broadcasters had diverse initiatives that did not run parallel with each other, and that they were operating based on their own strategies.
 I believe that Japan is a country suitable for smart television, with its extremely favorable environment for broadcasting and communication networks, movement towards lighter regulations, broadcasting companies with superior industrial structures, and high social media literacy among its users.

 However, 30% of local broadcasters do not currently link television to the Internet or mobile services. They claim that the reason for this is due to limitations in areas such as the cost and knowledge required. Of the local broadcasters that have Internet and mobile support, 16% have managed to recoup the costs associated with making that support available. There is still a long way to go.
 "What are your issues?" I asked the television broadcasters, and received answers ranging from production costs and budgets to a lack of human resources. The answers did not change from before. However, it appears that the attitude towards this has changed from "It's flourishing, so let's not do it." to "It's flourishing, so let's just do it now."
 Until now, the crux of the discussions has been about how to produce revenue from Internet transmissions - should they be paid with advertisements, or should they be offered as chargeable services to viewers? This time, we paid attention to 2 points that proved to be a return to the core business. The first was to expand the businesses and content areas of the broadcasting companies, specifically in terms of live broadcasting, merchandise sales, and B2B. The second was to incorporate the power of the Internet into improving television programs.
 In summary, we were able to see a new vision of smart television in Japan that did not involve just transmitting content over the Internet, but involved making television real and performing a literal version upgrade on television itself.

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"Survivre Aux Crises"

 Jacques Attali's "Survivre Aux Crises" presents a view of the 21st century as seen from a person who became the right-hand man of former French President Mitterrand at the age of 38, and contended with heavyweights such as Thatcher from the UK and Kohl from West Germany.

This book has a number of columns written separately from the main text, and they are arguably more enjoyable. Try reading them as summaries of the main text.

 From issues such as the economic climate, technological advancements, and terrorism, the book says that 1913 and 2013 bear striking resemblances to each other, and that with the current situation, it would not be unusual even for World War 3 to begin. This is shocking coming from Attali, because he accurately predicted the 2008 financial crisis.

In March 2013, both the Church of Rome and China elected new heads, and both have very similar laws regarding the election of their leaders. Indeed, both are closed systems facing the same problems. The difference is that the church's system has been around for 1800 years, whereas China's system has only been around for a few decades.

 In order to foresee future prospects for a country, the book says that one should not concentrate on GDP, but instead look at the 3 indicators of "Demographics, food, music". Looking at a country's demographics, savoring that country's food (=culture/lifestyle), and listening to that country's music (=innovation/beauty) will easily allow one to do so. Such a bizarre opinion is very much like Attali.

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the US military-industrial complex lost its enemy, and so arbitrarily conceived of China as an enemy. In order to do so, it needed to put forward a pretext of protecting Japan, thus it had to cause a mutual opposition between China and Japan. This is America's basic strategy, and it plans to continue putting China and Japan at odds with each other in the future. --- This is also an opinion typical of the Frenchman, but I find it hard to agree.

 He also leaves behind these words ---- The total number of humans that have ever existed is 100 billion. With the growth of media, the number of people that a single individual may be able meet has risen to 1000, but this number will rapidly increase. "The number of connections between fellow people living in this age has exceed that of all the previous ages in history combined."

How will mankind make use of that power? I hope to take on that question and attempt to think of an answer.

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"The New Digital Age"

 I have read "The New Digital Age" by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen.

 It paints a picture of countries, revolutions, and the future of conflicts spearheaded by the Fifth Estate, otherwise known as the Internet, not as a fantastic story, but as a true premonition of the future.

 

 In 10 years, the virtual human population will exceed that of the actual human population living on Earth, the citizens of that virtual human population will become unable to control their personal information in cyberspace, and these will cause effects on the real world. Governments will strengthen surveillance measures and impose restrictions on technology and their use, for reasons such as maintaining public order and preventing unlawful transactions. This will apply no matter whether they are democratic or dictatorial. With regulations by governments in place, the Internet will be mish-mash of the webs of various countries, and balkanization will occur.

 This is what the book explains. I believe that one's online ID will matter more than one's offline ID in the future, and that the surveillance carried out by countries will increase whether or not it is effective. Differences in the approaches taken by different countries will result in pandemonium. We can already see it in the varying models adopted by China, Turkey, and Germany. This will probably just accelerate if Google and other global enterprises do not reach an agreement with the governments of nations around the world. What should we think of these observations by Mr. Schmidt from Google?

 

 The book says that although Bin Laden concealed himself in Pakistan for 5 years without the use of phones or the Internet, this is the precise reason for the discovery of his exact hiding place: a huge mansion in the city that did not have communication lines laid out to it. The offline world is no longer safe anymore.

Will the Internet bring about more revolutions? Will drones and 3D printers contribute to more terrorism? Will there be more government policies concerning the virtual segregation of minorities? Will robots replace humans as soldiers? This book also asks these questions.

 

 Our group has teamed up with Stanford University to form an "IT Policy Research Association" to debate policies for the future. We hope to consider what should be done, with inspiration from the points of discussion offered by this text.

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"The End of Big"

 I have read "The End of Big" by Nicco Mele.

 It is a book that warns about how individuals connecting to the Internet can bring about the demise of "big things" such as traditional systems and power structures. Though it is not a particularly novel point of view, it is a good text that gives a comprehensive overview of the changes induced by the Internet.

 Mass media, political parties, Hollywood, governments, armies, universities, and large corporations. The book mentions many examples of how these "big things" have been overthrown by individuals connected to each other through the Internet. Across all sectors, this is more likely to be an image of the present than a depiction of the future.

Vannevar Bush, Engelbart, Ted Nelson, Tim O'Reilly, John Perry Barlow, Eric Raymond, Sherry Turkle, Salman Khan… It is also a catalog that allows you to learn the genealogy left by these digital pioneers.

 The programming language of Logo, ARPANET, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, One Laptop Per Child, OpenCourseWare, Fab Labs… It was also a useful listing for me to check the effects of the work I was involved in when I was in places like MIT.

 The book also presents a paradox: On one hand, there are small-time artists who have become able to send information directly to the world, but on the other hand, "even bigger things" such as YouTube have seen the light of day and flourished. However, is that merely a simple power shift? It would be good for all you students out there to use this book as a text to consider and ask yourselves such questions.

 The book makes 3 proposals regarding structures to make use of the power of individuals, the selection of capable leaders, and the management of online platforms respectively. The final issue is the biggest topic when formulating government policies on IT, and concerns the management of platforms such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter. However, the method has yet to be described. Students, what do you think?

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The Tokyo Olympics and information infrastructure

 My first memory was that of the torchbearers of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. No, the torchbearers were not on television. I waved flags while watching the runners on the wide streets with my very own eyes. The previous time, instead of focusing on the media, all the stops were pulled to develop bullet trains, highways, as well as distribution and transportation networks. It was an industrial society.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be held right smack in the middle of an information society. It will be held in a global city. And as the previous Olympics focused on development, the one after that must focus on maturity. I hope for information infrastructure that will serve as a model to show the international community what a safe, peaceful, and mature country should be.

 In terms of digital networks, Japan is already at the forefront of the world. However, there are still issues to address. Firstly, we have the issue of Wi-Fi. In order to welcome visitors from all over the world, I want to arrange for the availability of wireless broadband throughout the entire city of Tokyo.

 Next, we have the issue of the usage of broadcasting signals. Although digital terrestrial broadcasting is already available, the true test lies on providing new services from now on. I wish to make it possible to use next-generation video services that combine both communication networks and broadcasting networks.

 When the Olympics officially begins, we should not concern ourselves with communications or broadcasting anymore, but instead concentrate on welcoming international visitors with the signage within the city, and making it possible for them to view the progress of all matches via their smartphones. We should also prepare multilingual information and public screenings with 4K/8K ultra-high definition television.

The "Digital Signage Consortium", which I represent, has issued these proposals aimed at 2020.

I want people from all over the world to enjoy the Olympics through multilingual public screenings, while sending messages of encouragement on their smartphones, buying sports goods that athletes are using, or partying and connecting themselves to social media. I hope to build up the excitement, yet show the world a Tokyo and Japan that is safer than anywhere else.

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