June 17, 2002, Vol. 13, No. 5 ISSN 1346-5317

The 5th APEC Ministerial Meeting of Telecommunications and Information Industries (TELMIN 5) was held under the theme "Leveraging Digital Opportunities to Promote Common Development," from May 29 through 30, 2002 in Shanghai, China. At TELMIN 5, a number of speakers gave presentations, including Mr. SATA Genichiro, Senior Vice-Minister, MPHPT, who gave a speech on Japan's current information and communications policies and challenges. The "Shanghai Declaration," etc. was adopted which indicates future directions of APEC information and communications policies based on the deliberations of all meetings and sessions.

1. Participants
APEC TELMIN 5 was held to adopt ministerial declarations and action programs based on discussions on issues and challenges to be tackled by APEC with minister-level participants from 21 APEC member economies, from May 29 through 30, 2002 in Shanghai, China. From Japan, a delegation led by Senior Vice-Minister SATA made up of more than 20 members from the government and industry participated. 

2. Outline of discussions
Under the main theme "Leveraging Digital Opportunities to Promote Common Development," there were four Plenary Sessions with sub-themes, "Information Infrastructure," "Telecom Policy & Market Regulation," "Information Communication & Network Security" and "Human Capacity Building," at which minister-level participants made presentations and held discussions. At Plenary Session 1 under the theme of "Information Infrastructure," Senior Vice-Minister SATA made a presentation, in which he explained the "e-Japan Strategy," Japan's ICT policy, and introduced Japan's priority areas, i) construction of the next-generation high-speed Internet access networks, ii) human resources development, iii) promotion of e-government, etc., and iv) the current status concerning realization of high-reliability networks, and future issues thereof. He mentioned the importance of promoting e-government and cooperation to enable use of cutting-edge and highly reliable ICT such as IPv6, the mobile Internet and broadband satellites. Furthermore, he proposed an "Asia Broadband Program," which aims at transforming all of Asia into a global information hub.
Other economies reconfirmed the necessity for international cooperation in the implementation of the APEC telecommunication equipment MRA. In addition, some economies pointed out the necessity of further discussions on the International Charging Arrangements for Internet Services (ICAIS). Also, the importance of information and communications security was emphasized.

3. Adoption of the "Shanghai Declaration"
At Plenary Session 5, the "Shanghai Declaration" and "Program of Action" were adopted. Contained in the Declaration and Program are the following:
- Promotion of R&D into the next-generation technologies (such as IPv6, mobile Internet, broadband satellite, etc.) toward the deployment of advanced, secure and reliable information infrastructure
- Extended efforts to promote e-government
- Implementation of e-APEC Strategy
- Bridging the Digital Divide 
- Study on implementation of the Mutual Recognition Arrangement on Conformity Assessment for Telecommunications Equipment (MRA)
- Enhancing ICT policies
- Information network security
- Promotion of cooperation for human capacity building within the region
Furthermore, in order to instruct the APEC Telecommunications and Information Working Group (TEL) to give special priority to the protection of information and communications infrastructures, the Ministers adopted the "Statement on the Security of Information and Communications Infrastructures," containing the importance of establishing a legal basis to address the criminal misuse of information technologies and the importance of developing government-private sector partnerships for the protection of these infrastructures.

4. Others
Senior Vice-Minister SATA exchanged views with: Minister Wu Jichuan, Ministry of Information Industry, the People's Republic of China; Minister Yang Seung-taik, Ministry of Information and Communication, the Republic of Korea; Acting Minister David T. E. Lim, Ministry of Information, Communications and The Arts, Singapore; and Minister Luis Vicente Chang Reyes, Ministry of Transport, Communication, Housing and Construction, Peru.

In line with the "Japan-China ICT partnership" as concluded at the Japan-China ICT ministers' meeting held in January 2002, MPHPT invited a delegation from May 23 to 24, 2002, led by Ms. Han Xia , Deputy Director-General, Telecommunications Administration Bureau, Ministry of Information Industry (MII) and consisting of ICT policy makers and executives from telecommunications carriers, in order to introduce ICT policies of both countries and exchange opinions on future perspectives. In addition to the Telecommunications Policies Dialogue, the delegation exchanged opinions with the Japanese telecommunications carriers.

1. Opinion exchange between ICT policy makers of both countries
Opinions were exchanged on the following themes:
1) IPv6
The Japanese side explained efforts to deal with IPv6, including measures to: i) facilitate transition to IPv6; ii) implement the Japan Gigabit Network; and iii) promote international joint research on the next-generation Internet. Based on the explanation, both sides exchanged opinions. The Japanese side asked the counterpart to support various Japan-China joint projects related to IPv6, the Chinese side stated that they will continue to support those projects as in the past.
2) Number portability, numbering plan
In China, the numbering plan is to be developed by MII. MII, which is reviewing the organization of carrier prefixes (carrier identification code), showed a strong interest in the Japanese numbering plan. In response to this interest, the Japanese policy makers explained policies for number portability and numbering plan, including assignment/management systems for carrier prefixes and telephone numbers reinforced with concrete examples, followed by a Q&A session and opinion exchanges.
3) Dialing parity (carrier preselection system; or MYLINE system in Japan)
China is working on preparation for introducing a carrier preselection system comparable with the MYLINE system within 2002. To contribute to the introduction, the Chinese side questioned the timing of MYLINE system introduction, the amount of costs pertaining to the introduction, impacts of the introduction on carriers, user benefits, reasons why the MYLINE system was not introduced to mobile telephone systems. After replies by the Japanese side, opinions thereon were exchanged.

2. Opinion exchange, etc. with the Japanese telecommunications carriers
The delegation paid a technical visit to the JGN facilities in Otemachi, Tokyo. They exchanged opinions with executives of KDDI Corp. and NTT Communications Corp.
 
 
 
 
 

MPHPT has compiled this survey in order to grasp the usage situation for telecommunications and broadcasting services within households (those making up households), offices (establishments) and companies (enterprises).

<Outlines of the survey>
The "Communications Usage Trend Survey," which is composed with following 3 sections: "Households," "Offices (establishments)" and "Companies (enterprises)," has been conducted annually since 1990* as a statistical survey authorized by MPHPT in accordance with the Statistical Report Coordination Law. In 2001, the survey was conducted as indicated below:
(*The section "Companies (enterprises)," which was conducted as the annual survey on "Corporate Networks" in 1993, 1995 and 1996 separately, has been added in 1997 as a section of "Communications Usage Trend Survey.")
 

Section	Households	Offices (Establishments)	Companies (Enterprises)
Survey area	Nationwide
Survey period	As of November 1, 2001
Population Size	46,273,503	1,886,067	45,796
Purpose	The usage trends and demands of telecommunications services and broadcasting services at households, at Establishments and at Enterprises will be grasped through the survey. The findings will be considered as basic data for making future communications policy.
Object surveyed OBJECTSURVEYED	Households (including single households) headed by someone aged 20 or older as of April 1, 2001	Establishments with more than 5 regular employees excluding the industries of "Postal Services" and "Telecommunications" as defined in JSIC.	Enterprises with more than 100 regular employees, excluding the industries of "Agriculture," "Forestry," "Fisheries" and "Mining" as defined in JSIC.
Sample Size	6,400	5,600	3,000
Sampling Method	Random sampling (Stratified Two-stage Sampling on city, town or village status)	Random sampling (Systematic Sampling on regular employee size for each industry)	Random sampling (Systematic Sampling on regular employee size for each industry)
Effective replies (Rate)	3,845 (60.1%)	3,537 (63.2%)	1,783 (59.4%)

Note: "JSIC" stands for "Standard Industrial Classification for Japan."

Highlights of the survey results have been released on the website "Information & Communications Statistics Database" at: http://www.soumu.go.jp/johotsusintokei/
For your reference, followings are some of the highlights:

1. Households/Individuals (those making up the households surveyed)
1) Penetration Rates of the ICT devices (Households)
- Personal computer: 58.0% (increased by 7.5 points from 50.5% in 2000)
- Mobile phones (including Internet-compatible ones): 75.6% (increased by 0.2 points from 75.4% in 2000)
- Internet-compatible mobile phones: 44.6% (increased by 17.9 points from 26.7% in 2000)
2) Usage of the Internet
- Internet penetration rate and number of Internet users
- Households: 60.5% (increased by 26.5 points from 34.0% in 2000)
- Householders: 50.1% (increased by 8.7 points from 41.4% in 2000)
- Individuals (aged 6 or older): 46.7% (Male: 53.0%, Female: 40.6%)
- Number of Internet users (aged 6 or older) in 2001 is estimated approximately 55.93 million persons, equaled to 44.0% of the total population of Japan.
- Main barriers to use the Internet (Householders: non-Internet users):
"No need to use the Internet" (32.3%), "Difficulties in using personal computers" (32.0%)
- Main activities using the Internet (Householders: Internet users):
"Using of e-mail" at home (64.8%) or at working place (44.4%)
"Using of free and charged information services" at other place (10.5%)
- Status of online shopping (Householders: Internet and online shopping users):
- Top of the goods and services purchased in 2001: "Reservation of various types of tickets" (40.3%)
- Total value of the goods and services they purchased in 2001:
42.3% of online shopping users (householders) paid less than 20,000 yen, while 24.5% of them paid more than 100,000 yen.
3) Services expected to spread, due to advances in ICT
Tops of them are as follows:
- At home: "Services using your screen in which you can receive health consultations and diagnosis from a doctor and provide welfare and care services for the elderly" (43.2%)
- Outside: "Services that enable you to obtain particular information about an area, such as the nearest restaurants and transportation facilities" (39.9%)

2. Offices (Establishments)
1) Penetration Rates of the ICT devices
- Mobile phones: 61.4% (decreased by 6.7 points from 68.1% in 2000)
- PDA: 8.1% (decreased by 7.3 points from 15.4% in 2000)
- Personal computer: 87.1 % (increased by 4.7 points from 82.4% in 2000)
2) Usage of the Internet
- Internet penetration rate: 68.0% (increased by 23.2 points from 44.8% in 2000)
- By industry, the rates of increase in "Wholesales & Retail Trade," "Eating & Drinking Places" and "Transport" are remarkable. By number of regular employees, "5-29 regular employees" marked the highest rate of increase.
- Purposes of using the Internet:
- At the top of the list of them are "Making contact and communicating both within and outside the company" (59.7%) and "Searching and obtaining information in an external database" (58.5%)
To be remarkable, "Providing information and advertising on your home page" increased to 42.6% by 10.4 points from 32.2% in 2000.

3. Companies (Enterprises)
Usage of the Internet and Company Communications Network
- Internet penetration rates: 94.5% (increased by 5.2 points from 89.3 % in 2000)
- The gap of the rate by industry or by number of regular employees has been cleared away.
- Purpose of using the Internet:
- "Information search" (95.2%), "Using e-mail" (92.1%), "Hosting a home page" (69.9%)
- Main activities of hosting home page:
- At the top of the list of them is "For database access from the customer site" (38.6%)
- E-commerce penetration rate: 36.9% of the enterprises hosting home pages
- By industry, "Wholesales and Retail Trade, Eating and Drinking Places" marked the highest rate 41.8%.
- Main concerns on using communications network or the Internet
"Difficulty of establishing security measures" (68.9%), "Concerns about computer viruses" (61.1%)
- The rate of having intra-company communications network: 85.4% (LAN: 66.9%, Intranet: 27.8%)
- The rate of having inter-company communications network: 40.5% (WAN: 28.5%, Extranet: 13.9%)
 
 
 

The 27th Conference of the Asian Info-communications Council (AIC) was successfully held during May 20 through 24, 2002, in Chiangrai, Thailand, bringing together 112 participants from telecommunications administrations, telecommunications carriers, communications equipment manufacturers, universities and research institutes of nine Asian countries (China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam). From Thailand, the host country, some forty participants, Ms. Auraphan Suwanrat, Director General of Post and Telegraph Department, Mr. Pariya Sirikul, Vice Governor of Chiangrai Province, Prof. Prakit Tangtisanon, President of King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, attended. Mr. ISHIHARA Hideaki, Director-General for Technology Policy Coordination of MPHPT, presented a keynote speech titled "Approach to Effective R&D on IT" at the opening of the conference.

From Japan, 12 contribution papers were presented, including one on a broadband satellite Internet testbed project, PKI as a basis of global e-commerce and e-government, ubiquitous mobile communication, and distance learning technologies. All these presentations drew much attention. Also, Japan and Korea jointly introduced a timely topic "IT-related projects during the World Cup 2002," which attracted great interests of all participants.

Other member countries made many presentations and proposals on IPv6, VoIP (Voice over IP), optical WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing), broadband access, the third-generation mobile communications systems and bridging digital divide technologies.

Regarding the council management, member countries discussed the future activities of the AIC. As a consensus of all member countries, it was positively decided to extend the term of the council for further five years starting from April 2003.

The 28th Conference of the AIC will be scheduled to be held in Manila, the Philippines in November 2002, at where, member countries will exchange their experience and views on special theme "Issues and challenges in the creation of e-society."

For further information on the AIC, please access the site: http://www.aic.or.jp
 
 
 

Since January 2002, MPHPT has been holding meetings of the study group five times.
Along with the rapid and widespread deployment of advanced telecommunications services via IP-based and broadband platforms, as exemplified by the Internet and other media, the number of consumer-related troubles in the telecommunications field is on the rise. Against this backdrop, the study group surveyed i) the current status of consumer support measures taken and systems prepared by telecommunications carriers, etc.; and ii) consumer support measures and policies in foreign countries and in fields other than telecommunications.

After organizing current issues, taking into consideration those survey results, the study group deliberated on various aspects in a comprehensive manner and compiled the following measures to be tackled from now on:
1) To foster human resources who support consumers
2) To promote information provision to consumers
3) To improve consumer support systems including counseling for consumers
4) To improve development of rules for supporting consumers