Broadband Promotion, Elimination of the Digital Divide, and Other Policy Measures in Japan

Abstract

Access to broadband networks is available in almost every region in Japan, not just large urban centers. This extensive coverage is a result of proactive investments in networks, primarily by the private sector, over the more than 30 years since telecommunications were liberalized in 1985. The broadband build-out in Japan was based on expectations that broadband Internet would serve both as a tool to promote social transformations and as an economic growth engine. Broadband expansion was accomplished and accelerated through a number of factors, including (i) government-wide efforts involving comprehensive goal setting; (ii) a policy mix of competition and stimulus measures taken by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications/the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and other individual agencies and ministries; and (iii) competitive expansion by carriers to address market needs. Most of this chapter will be spent on the government's broadband promotion policy since 2001 and on the efforts to eliminate the digital divide, which has cropped across the country as broadband infrastructure has spread. This chapter will also touch on efforts to promote greater competition among carriers and to spur technological development, systematic steps taken to avoid investment duplications under the universal service system while addressing the migration from fixed-line telephone networks to IP networks, and other related policies.