By presenting careful theoretical and empirical analyses on the upsides and downsides of various policy measures pertaining to the Japan’s information and communication industries, the Study Program on Information and Communication Policies (SP-ICP) aims to promote a common understanding in the nature of the issues involved and in-depth policy debates among stake holders including regulators and consumers.
SP-ICP provides a financial and academic support for the next generation of researchers and opinion leaders so that they can engage in a project that promotes a dialogue between academia and the policy circle.
In Japan as in the United States and the European Community, the communication infrastructure investment is shifting from the publicly switched telephone network (PSTN) to the IP-based network, new type of communication services such as broadband and internet have become part of the social infrastructure, and a fusion between optical fiber, wireless and broadcasting infrastructure is taking place. A policy perspective toward a ubiquitous network society is accepted by public where rich contents and applications are delivered with platform services on the converged infrastructure. Such vision will not materialize without creative government policies and their timely implementation.
However, it has hitherto been the sole responsibility of the regulator to set and prioritize policy agenda, and to compare and evaluate alternative policy measures. The optimality of such a policy making process is quickly eroding in the area where innovations and market developments are taking place at an unprecedented speed.
What is called for is a transparent and fair mechanism through which competition and cooperation by government, industry and academia will lead to a creation of better policy instruments. For that purpose it is necessary to institute a market place for policy ideas that challenge the government monopoly. It will only be through such a mechanism that the quality of policy debates is improved by all the participants, the check-and-balance is exercised on a specific policy measure, and the next generation of researchers and opinion leaders can be educated.
What we need is a next generation policy paradigm that goes with the next generation of information and communication technology. We must create a paradigm of our own with an eye towards a long-run perspective in the communications technology that has come to be recognized as one of the most advanced in the global market.
It is thus the purpose of SP-ICP to encourage theoretical and empirical studies of the upsides and downsides of real life policy measures, to promote a common understanding among academia, industry and administration and to contribute to the in-depth policy debates on important policy issues.