Japanese Telecommunications: Market and Policy in Transition

Japanese Telecommunications: Market and Policy in Transition
By Ruth Taplin, and Masako Wakui (Eds)
Routledge, 2006
ISBN: 0415368030

Review by Sean Curtin

Anyone who has visited Japan in recent years just cannot fail to notice how advanced Japanese mobile phone technology and services are in comparison to their European counterparts. Not surprisingly, Japan is becoming a global leader in some sectors of this fast-moving field. The amazing nationwide penetration of Japanese broadband to the remotest regions of the country is also another a striking feature. Yet, despite impressive achievements little is actually known outside Japan about these developments or their potential impact of the dynamic global telecommunications sector. To rectify this situation, Ruth Taplin and Masako Wakui have produced a comprehensive and much needed book spotlighting the Japanese telecommunications industry.

It's an edited volume that bringing together several renowned Japanese and European specialists in the telecommunications field, who use their insights to put recent Japanese developments in perspective. This timely publication covers most of the major new developments including the amazingly buoyant broadband market, the country's unique satellite systems, its spectrum policy, network policy and the political forces shaping the entire process.

Taplin and Wakui begin the analysis by providing a stimulating overview of the telecommunications sector. After the introduction there are eight individual chapters which cover specific areas in considerable detail. In the first chapter, "Changes in the Interface and Industry Structure," Sumiko Asai looks at the shifts in the regulation and technology of Japanese telecommunications using the concepts of "modularity" and "interface." This is followed by an informative piece by Takanori Ida entitled "The Broadband Market in Japan" in which he explains Japan's meteoric rise to global broadband trend-setter status and how the current situation is likely to develop.

Facts and figures pack chapter three by Jeffrey L. Funk who puts the Japanese mobile phone industry under the global microscope. He makes some interesting observations about the broader implications that deregulation, globalisation, and technological change has made on the sector as well as looking at the wider impact on the Japanese economy. This is followed by "Changing Satellite Systems in Japan within a Global Context" in which Ruth Taplin examines the sometimes unique approach Japan has taken to developing its own satellite systems and how this process contrasts with the approaches of other countries, especially the US and EU.

In Chapter five Hajime Oniki provides a detailed account of the Japanese spectrum allocation system along with its history and background. The next study is an in-depth analysis by Masako Wakui entitled "R&D and Intellectual Property in a Changing Telecommunication Market." He discusses how technological development has been conducted in the sector, how IP has been owned, utilized and the types of changes that have been and are occurring.

The penultimate and final chapters by Kenji Suzuki and Motohiro Tsuchiya respectively cover "Policy network for network policy in Japan" and "The Difficult Role of the Japanese Negotiator in the Access Charge Negotiations with the United States."

While some chapters are fairly specialized, taken as a whole this book is an extremely useful reference work which illuminates an increasingly important part of the Japanese economy and its impact on the global market. It is not only comprehensive, but its Japanese and European contributors cover the topic from a broad spectrum of perspectives, conceptual frameworks and viewpoints. Overall this work makes a major contribution to our understanding of the emerging Japanese telecommunications industry and is certainly worth reading.