Recent Trends of Information

Technology in the Social Life of Japan

OKADA Naoyuki
　 Professor Emeritus 　 　　
　　　　　 Kyushu Institute of 　 Technology 　 　
　　　　
　　　　　　　　 University of Warsaw 　 Aug.27, 2005 　　　
 Contents
1. 　 Introduction
2. 　 IT Policy
3. 　 Trends of IT Industry
4. 　 IT in Everyday Life
5. 　 Future of IT
6. 　 Conclusions
 Chapter 1 　 Introduction
 History of IT
Early ’40s – ’80s: Growing era
　 Birth and growth of computer
technology
　 Hardware ：　 large computer
　　 Software ：　 operating system
　　 Database ：　 large-scale electronic file
　 Applications
- The privilege in constructing a
system is given to computers.
- The first is efficiency of work.
Since ’90s: Grown-up era
Human and computer collaborate
each other, composing an
information system.
Human: adaptive processing, broad &
general judgment, friendly treatment
Computer: fast & correct processing,
narrow & deep judgment, monotonous
　 repetition
Applications
- Human beings are put at the center
of an information system.
- Computers are introduced to support
human beings
The role that Japan played
Growing era
- Design and manufacture of large-scale
computers and word processors
- Development of large-scale electronic
dictionaries of vocabulary and concepts
Grown-up era
　 - Development of network systems
　 - Design and manufacture of mobile devices
connected to internet
　
 Current states of Japan
　 Era of chaos or groping
- What kind of IT policy should Japan carry out?
- Can IT industry revive?
- How much do we need IT in everyday life?
- How does science contribute to IT?
We lack the principle to solve these problems.
 Chapter ２　 I T Policy
 ２．１　 The 　 e-Japan 　 tactics
The government made a five-year IT
plan, “e-Japan tactics” in January 2001
aiming at the most advanced IT country
of the world.
Key phrases
( １ ) Super-highway network
( ２ ) Electronic dealing
( ３ ) Electronic government
( ４ ) Able persons
Goals of e-Japan tactics
Education ： to receive a high education in
whatever conditions such as geographical,
physical or economical one may be.
Art&Science: to appreciate artistic or literary
works wherever one may be, and to
promote the distribution of digital contents.
Medical Service ： emergent treatment of
home-stay patients, or high-quality service
of remote place ones
Work ：　 to do work at one’s home, being
released from commuting
Life ：　 to enjoy recent movies, popular TV-
programs, or joyful communications with
remote families or friends wherever one
may be
Industry ： global dealing whatever the scale
of a company may be
Administration ： to get various public
certificates or to report tax payment at
one’s home
--------
 ２．２　 Carrying out
( １ ) Super-highway network
- Restudy of various regulations of electric and
communications business, e.g. assignment
of the band of radio-frequency
- Improvement of digital divide

(2) 　 Electronic dealing

- Restudy of the Antitrust Law, or
establishment of a new regulation for the
protection of privacy
(3) Electronic government
- Making the documents of the government/
municipalities electronic files, and processing
them with on-line
- To open the information of administration or to
order public enterprises through the Internet

(4) Able persons

- To improve the level of information literacy of
all the people, and to train IT leaders
- To train IT engineers and researchers, and to
educates contents creators aiming at the
highest level of the world
 ２．３　 Midterm results
The government reported the midterm results
in July 2002.
( １ ) Super-highway network
- Super-/ordinary highway network connectable
for 24 hours
Goal ： 3 ０ /1 ０ M(illion) families
Result ： 34/14
- Connection rate
２，５００ yen/month
（ the cheapest of the world ）
( ２ ) Electronic dealing
- Scale of the dealing market
Business companies vs business companies
　 Goal: 　 7 T(rillion) yen
Result: 　　 3.4
Business companies vs consumers

Goal: 300 B(illion) yen

Result: 1.5
- Restudy or establishment of related laws
　　 The fundamental laws, e.g. rights for
intellectual property, have been completed.
(3) 　 Electronic government
- Bills making the administrative procedures
on-line were introduced in the Diet
- Electronic bids were partially introduced for
public enterprises
(4) 　 Able persons
- Training course of information literacy
Fundamental: About ５ . ５ M persons
Professional: About 1.4K
- Internet connection of all the public schools
Approximately 40 thousand elementary,
middle, and high schools
　　 Goal: 　 100%
　　 Result: 　 100%
 ２．４　 Evaluation
- The effort by the government could be
recognized ．

- But the world is making progress year by year.

Spread of the Internet 　
　 Sweden ６５％ , Japan ４４％（ the 16th
place ）
Electronic dealing market （ busi. vs busi. ）
　 USA 　４０％ , Japan １８％（ the 2nd place ）
Plan of I T promotion
　 USA IT-21C, EU eEUROPE-2000
 Chapter 3 　 Trends of IT
industry
３．１　 Survey of thirty tops’ understanding
The Japanese economy is suffering serious
deflation now.
A survey of the thirty tops’ understanding of
the main companies in Japan was carried
out at the beginning of 2001.
　 The details ： manufacture ８， IT industry
6 ， financial 5 ， transportation 3 ， and others 8
Result ｰ overall
2 1
3 1
5
6

24
Gradually improving
Heavy steps of imrovement
Keeping a standstill
Gradually falling down
9
Gradually improving
Though at the bottom, heavy steps
of improvement
Keeping a standstill
Gradually going back

その他
Fig.1 　 Current state Fig.2 Perspective of
this year

From the Yomiuri of Jan. 3, 2003

Result ｰ IT
　 Q. 　 What is the leading industry of

Japan after 3 through 5 years ？

　 A. 　 1st 　 I T industry （ 13 tops ）

　　　 2nd 　 Automobile industry(10 -)
　　　 3rd 　 Bio-industry(9 - ）
---------From The Yomiuri of Jan.3, 2003
 ３．２　 Trends of the whole IT industry
　 The details
(1) Post 　　 　　　　
(2) Electric&communications
(3) Broadcast 　　　　
(4) Software house
(5) Information-related service
(6) Manufacture of Information&communications
device
(7) Rent of information&communications device
(8) Construction of electric&communications facility
(9) Research
T yen
120

100

80

60

40

20

0
1985 1990 1995 2001

Fig. ３　 Total amount of IT production 　

From the white book 2001総務省of information&communications
2001 年情報通信白書より
by the Ministry of the Management and Coordination
 T yen
120

100
Production amount

80

60

40

20

0
1985 1990 1995 2001
Year

IT Transp. Machine Steel

Fig. ４　 Comparison with other industries

From the white book 2001 of information&communications
by the Ministry of the Management and Coordination
 ３．３ Trends of several fields 　
(1) Communications
a ． ” i-mode”
Technology to connect the portable or
personal handy-phones to the Internet
- Japan took the lead in its development in
1992
- Number of users
　 　 Japan 　 About ３６Ｍ
　 　 EU About ２００ K
 Menu of i-mode
- Weather/news/information
- Mobile banking
- Bill/card/insurance
- Transportation/map/travel
- Shopping/ticket
- Gourmet
- Life
- Work/live/learn
- Melody/karaoke
-----------
b. 　 Broadband
Technology of communications
circuits transmitting/receiving more
than 500K bits per second
Note : Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Human speech does not need the high-
frequency band of telecommunications
lines, which are used for the high-speed
data transfer.
(2) 　 Post administration
- The Agency of Post Business was
transferred from an organization of the
government to the Public Corporation in
2003.
- Three categories of its business:
Post, savings, and insurance
- The post was partially released to private
enterprises, but the savings and/or the
insurance is not yet.
When and how much?
(3) 　 Broadcast
Digital broadcasts are getting popular.
- Digitization makes it possible to
improve as several times as high as
the quality of images, and
- to process the received contents at
one’s home ．
(4) 　 Information-related industry ---
Robot industry
- Robot control needs a high-level IT, in
particular Artificial Intelligence (AI).
- The number of the industry robots working
in Japan are 360K approximately, and
occupies 43% of the world.
- The robots working at home or for welfare
are actively being developed.
 Chapter 4 IT in Everyday Life
　 Several sides affected by IT in everyday life
 ４．１　 Communications---Telephone
(1) Portable phones
　“ i-mode” ：　 mentioned above
　“ Sha （写） -mail” ：　 a kind of e-mail
　　 technology that a portable phone can
take photographs to attach them to
e-mails
- Approximately ２３Ｍ portable
phones will spread in Japan at the
end of 2003, 1 ３Ｍ ones of which
will be sha-mail.
- Recent sha-mail can take moving
pictures with sounds
- Very popular among youngsters
(2) “ ＩＰ phones”
A kind of communications technology
that a home telephone can be
connected to the other by a “protocol”
which is used in the Internet.
- In Japan, an Internet provider
appeared recently whose telephone
charge is free if both sides of a call
are IP phones.
(3) Others---“Bone-conducting” telephone
A kind of telephone used in noisy places
or for weak persons in hearing
- Pressing its receiver to one’s temple or
the rear part of an ear
- The vibration of the speech is
conducted through skull, internal
ear, and eventually brain ．
 ４．２　 Transportation --- ”Car-navi.”
ＧＰＳ s （ Global Positioning
Systems ） , which identifies one’s
position using artificial satellites
- Cars equipped with this system were
released in the market of Japan in
1990 or so.
At the beginning, only the current position
was displayed (often with a big error).
- Car-navigation systems today
* From an ordinary map presentation to a bird’s
eye one
* Communications by speech
* Root search from the current position to the
goal
* Offer of sight-seeing information along a root
* Offer of traffic information by connecting to
a transportation center
* E-mails by connecting to the Internet
 ４．３　 Broadcast --- Digital hi-vision
A TV system which transmits/receives
digital electric waves to/from the
satellite(s) above the equator.
- As is called “hi-vision”, its images are
clean and minute, because the number
of the scanning lines increased from
512 to 1,125 per picture(frame).
- Big picture ： diagonal 32 inches,
width 30 inches or so
- Very high presence rate sounds by
putting five speakers at right and
left, and front and rear sides
- Both way communications between
each TV terminal and the station
 ４．４　“ Iyashi (healing)”--- pet toys
The people today suffer various kinds
of stress, and so the industry healing
them are popular in Japan.
(1) 　 Pet robot --- Sony’s ＡＩＢＯ
- A walking robot like dog 　
AIBO’s functions
Feelings and instinct: Six kinds of feelings,
e.g. joy or anger, and five kinds of instinct,
e.g. curiosity or (charge) appetite
Learning ： Knowledge through experiences
Behavior ：　 Actions suitable for it’s age
Sense and recognition: 　 Sensors of light/
sound and recognition of speech/
images
（ 2 ）　 Dog language translator
---Takara’s Ｂｏｗｌｉｎｇｕａｌ
A device which analyses dog’s voice,
in particular, voice-prints to translate
his/her feelings or mood into
human sentences
- Recognition of six kinds of feelings,
e.g. pleasure, demand, or threats
- Thirty thousand translators were sold in
ten days after the sale began.
- The “Ig-Nobel Prize” was awarded to this
translator by some scientific magazine
concerning Harvard University, USA in
2002.
 ４．５　 Retails --- “Con-
veni （ Convenience
store)
Retail stores such as vegetable store, fish
shop, hardware store, and tailor’s
disappear from downtown local cities
recently.
Instead, “con-venis” appear here and there,
and sell necessary goods for everyday
life for twenty-four hours.
- There can be found ITs from two points
of view.
　　　　　　　　　　
(1) Management
Construction of powerful networks
Head-quarter
system

Networks
（ Special and Internet)

Retail system Physical-distribution Dealer

center system system

Retail store １ Retail store ｎ

POS, ATM, MMK,--- POS, ATM, MMK, ---

Fig. 5 　 Network systems of con-venis

(2) Goods
Collection and delivery center of information
- Receipt of post
- Administration service, e.g. reservation of
public facilities
- Delivery of goods sold by the Internet
- Banking, e.g. ＡＴＭ
- Electronic dealing
-----------
 Chapter 5 　 Future of Ｉ Ｔ
 ５．１　 Making IT intelligent
- IT of the growing era was centered
around computers.

Science and technology of computer,

communications, and network will be
pursued more and more from now,
too.
- The grown-up era gives the privilege to
the human beings in the construction of
information systems.

　 What kind of principle should we

have
in this era ?
 - The Science Council of Japan reported
in 1993 that computer science steps
towards knowledge science, i.e.
referring to the human intelligence.
- So is IT, and the computer models of
the mind gain more and more in
importance.
 ５．２　 Computer models of the mind

Intelligence dwells in the mind.

Recent research in the fields of cognitive
science and artificial intelligence
throws light on the comprehensive
mechanism of the mind.
(1)Minsky’s model
The mind is composed of a large number
of small processors called “agent”.
- An agent shares just a simple job.
- Several agents meet to do a job, and
several groups meet to do a little
larger job.
- Thus, the mind is a large set of agents,
and is called “multi-agent system”.
- However, many problems remains
unsolved in Minsky’s model.
- Especially how AI technologies developed
by each sub-field, e.g. natural language
processing or pattern recognition can
be incorporated into a computer model
is not clear.
(２) The author’s model
The mind consists of six domains (functions)
of processing.
(1) Recognition
(2) Reasoning&Design
(3) Emotion
(4) Expression
(5) Memory
(6) Language
 Language

Emotion Memory

Reasoning&Design

Recognition Expression
Mind(brain ）

Sensors Actuators

（ Thirst ， hunger ，…） Body

（ Scene ， （ Behavior ，
speech ，…） External world
speech ，…）
Fig.6 　 Okada’s model
 Plan contoller Interrupt controller
Control Language
Reasoning of behavior Reasoning of di
実現可能性 危険性 存在性、ほか
Planning Emotions Memory
Plan generator
Reasoning
Simulator Evaluator
Reasoning&Design
認識・人間の存在性・交差点 1 認識・滑る可能性・池 1

認識・人間の存在性・館 1 前 1 認識・転ぶ可能性・池 1
Recognition Expression
認識・人間の存在性・館 1 の池 1 認識・落ちる可能性・池 1
Mind （ brain ）
認識・人間の存在性・池 1 認識・溺れる可能性・池 1

認識・人間の存在性・猟師小屋 1 前 1 認識・風邪をひく可能性・池 1
Sensors Actuators
認識・人間の存在性・館 1 のぶどう棚 1 認識・凍死する可能性・池 1

（ Thurst,hunger… ） Body
認識・人間の存在性・橋 1 の東 1 認識・滑る可能性・館 1 の池 1

（ Scene ， （ Behavior ，
External world
speech ，…） speech ，…）
・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ ・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ ・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ ・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・
 ５．３　 Aesopworld

A system for implementing our model

- It simulates the physical, mental
activities of protagonists of Aesop
Fables, e.g. The Fox and the Grapes.
 Language
desire
relieve plan
thirst eat fruits

Emotion Reasoning
goal plan Memory
&Design
relieve Drink water
Controller
thirst
Plan-
knowledge
Nature-
Planner reasoning

physiology Plan generator

thirst
Recognition Simulator Evaluator Expression

Reasoner

reasonin
reasoning g
water in pond reasoning human
Sensors pot in house near pond Actuators

Fig.7 Chain activation of agents

 Language

plan
Emotion Reasoning go to mansion Memory
&Design to drink water
Controller
actionPlan-
knowledge
movement to
Nature-
Planner mansion
reasoning

Plan generator

Recognition Simulator Evaluator Expression

Reaosner

Sensors Actuators
Fig.8 　　 Snapshot 1
Fig.9 　　 Snapshot ２
Chapter 6 　 Conclusions
 IT in Japan is stepping into the
mature era from the grown-up
one.
 It’s doctrine is humanity, where
the privilege in the information
system is given to the human
beings instead of computers.
 Some of ITs will survive whereas
others will disappear according to
the doctrine.
 Thus, future computers will
resemble more and more humans.