Transcript Japan

Japan
Assessment for IT Capability
Japan’s Political Makeup – Unitary
Constitutional Monarchy
 Legislature - Parliament
 House of Representatives
(480)
 House of Councillors (242)
 Executive
 Prime Minister – elected by
Legislature
 Cabinet – appointed by Prime
Minister – usually members of
Parliament
 Judiciary – 5 Levels of Courts
 Appointed by the Cabinet
Political Parties
 Political Parties present in Parliament
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Liberal Democratic Party
Democratic Party of Japan
New Clean Government Party
Japan Communist Party
Socialist Democratic Party
Conservative New Party
Government Promotion of IT
 METI – Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry
 Creates policies related to:
 Electronic Commerce Promotion
 Personal Information Protection
 Electronic Government
 R&D
 Human Resource Development
 Information Security
 Incentives offered for companies investing in IT
research
 Low Interest Rates
 Tax breaks
 Expert advice
Barriers to IT Diffusion
 Low Foreign Investment
 State Owned Services
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Delivery
Insurance
Financial
Barrier to IT Diffusion – Foreign
Investment
 Lowest foreign direct investment out of G8
members
 Low investment amount attributed to Japan’s
historical view that foreign investment is a
threat
 Government is looking for ways to actively
promote investment, realizing its importance
 Foreign investment has risen sharply recently,
although still low comparatively
Barrier to IT Diffusion – State Owned
Services
 Privatization is relatively extensive, except for
the Japan Post which is state owned
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Postal Delivery
Insurance Services
Banking (Savings)
 Privatization of Japan Post to begin in 2007
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Heavily debated
Restriction of IT Ownership
 Restrictions are minimal
 NTT – National Telephone Company
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33% foreign ownership cap
 Largest Cable TV Company (Juniper) is
majority-owned by a US Firm
Japan’s Copyright Laws
 Robust and strict, similar to the U.S.
 Exceptions:
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Teachers can reproduce copyrighted works in
the interest of teaching (TV and Audio only)
Free reproduction of news is permitted
S/W can be reproduced for personal use
 Copy protected CD’s and Digital Private
Recording fees (DVD-RW recorders, etc)
exist
Educational System
 99% of population is literate
 IT literacy is also widespread
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2002 – 57.2 million Internet Users
12 million Internet Hosts
Language
 Knowledge of English
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30% of elementary students
All Junior and High school students
20% of population read English newspapers,
magazines, or watch English TV
 Written symbols
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More than 256
Made up of characters and Syllabaries
Japanese Culture
 Hofstede MAS – 91
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High degree of gender differentiation
 Hofstede UAI – 89
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Low tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity
 Hofstede PDI – 50
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Doesn’t stress extreme equality or inequality
 Hofstede IND – 42
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Mid to low individualism – group still more
important than the individual
IT Diffusion
 Phones
71.15 million land lines (2002)
 86.6 million cell phones (2003)
 119 per 100 people (2002) 29th in the world
 Computers
 38.2 per 100 people (2005)
 21st in the world
 TV
 10.5 million cable subscribers
 Growing 20% a year
 3 million satellite subscribers
 Internet
 57.2 million subscribers 12 million hosts (2002)
 44.9 per 100 people 17th in the world (2002)
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Electronic Commerce / EDI
 Considered an important and relevant topic
 Issued joint statements on EC with:
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United States
United Kingdom
Australia
 METI considers EC a critical initiative
Digital / Fiber Network Infrastructure
 High speed networks are readily and cheaply
available
 IT Strategy Council formed in 2000 by PM
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Goal was to make Japan the “World’s Leading IT
Nation by 2005”
Cornerstone of plan was broadband connections
 Today fiber (ultra-broadband) is available to most (16
times faster than connections in US)
 Broadband (DSL / Cable) is available to all
May 2003 the percentage of Japan households
containing broadband surpassed the U.S.
Native Software Industry
 Second largest market in the world for IT
products and services
 Still imports 40% of all software
 Lack of industry standard and great number
of characters cause software problems –
multi-bits needed for one character
 Factory assembly methods have been
successfully implemented in software
development
 Multilingual programmers in great demand
Native Hardware Industry
 Robust with mature hardware firms including:
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Sony
Fuji Electronics
NEC
Fujitsu
Joint Ventures
 Keiretsu System – close and stable
partnering relationship designed to benefit
both companies involved, but considered
temporary
 Prefer joint ventures as opposed to wholly
owned subsidiaries, particularly when barriers
to entry are high.
Economy
 Third largest economy in purchasing power
parity, second on a nominal basis
 Stock Market
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Tokyo Stock Exchange
Second largest exchange in monetary value to
the NYSE
Currently lists 2,383 companies
 GNP Per Capita
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$42,000 USD
Future Outlook
 18th in Information Society Index (2005)
 16th in Global Information Technology Report
ranking IT readiness (2005)
 Currently in a position to leverage IT with
ubiquitous broadband access and a
technology-savvy population
 Can benefit from a greater amount of foreign
investment and privatization of remaining
state sponsored industries