NATIONAL POLICY

Japanese digital library (DL) policy is shaped by many factors, including cultural values, issues of governmental organization and structure, economic questions (relating both to budgets and social choices), legal concerns (centered on copyright) and technology. Japan differs from the United States in that it has formulated and is implementing a national digital library policy. By contrast, while the United States has DL funding programs in place, these programs depend on organizations such as universities to seek funds through voluntary proposals.

The U.S. approach is a passive one in which the government makes research funding available and depends on organizations such as universities to come forward with voluntary proposals. While this approach virtually guarantees large number of applicants, it is unable to force DL development in a specific direction, and does not ensure that the appropriate government departments will even be involved.

Japan's DL policy is articulated in a document entitled Program for Advanced Information Infrastructure (May 1994) published by the Ministry for International Trade and Industry (MITI), referred to later as the "MITI report." The MITI report presents the DL issue as but one part of a far larger coordinated effort to augment the country's digital infrastructure. This involves strengthening digital telecommunications to facilitate use of the Internet and large-scale development of multimedia products and techniques, as well as focused work on electronic libraries.

Japan's DL objective is expressed in one sentence of the MITI report: "[I]n the medium and long term each home will be able to access electronic libraries and electronic museums around the world via networks, allowing users to readily search and obtain worldwide information on books and art based on their own particular interests." The Japanese are willing to take a long-term view and, as shall be seen later in the Economic Models section, to build infrastructure with no requirement for short-term cost justification. The Japanese DL goal is egalitarian ("each home") and international ("worldwide"), yet personalized ("own particular interests"). Japan avowedly wants to create "netizens"-people who inhabit the Internet, are familiar with its power and have the ability to use it effectively. The MITI report also makes it clear that Japan makes little distinction between digital libraries and digital museums.

Government Organization

It is one thing to have a national information infrastructure policy, but quite another to possess the organization, budget and will to carry it out. In Japan, the policy laid out in the MITI report is implemented by a number of agencies:

• MITI. Also administers protection for patents and industrial designs. Funds the Kansai Center¹, a program involving Kyoto University, Fujitsu, NTT and Kansai Power for rapid digitizing and delivery of information to homes and businesses. MITI is responsible for promoting cooperation between government and industry to build Japanese industries capable of competing in world markets.
• Ministry of Education, Science, Sports & Culture (Monbusho). Has responsibility for universities and museums, and has the power to mandate the establishment of digital libraries in institutions under its jurisdiction and has done so. It also includes the Agency for Cultural Affairs (ACA), one of whose branches administers copyright.
• Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. Unlike in the United States, whose postal system is confined to the delivery of physical letters and packages, in Japan the oldest and newest methods of information delivery are overseen by the same ministry. It is also responsible for advanced telecommunications, and it controls high definition television (HDTV) and the country's Internet backbone.
• Other ministries. Various components of the advanced information infrastructure have been delegated to other ministries, such as the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which in charged with using information technology to improve the health of the population.
• National Diet Library (NDL). This is roughly the equivalent of the Library of Congress. However, the NDL has taken a leadership position in digitization. The fact that the Diet's library is digitizing means that the Diet's members are in a position to appreciate the value of digital libraries and continue to fund them.
• Management and Coordination Agency. This agency is responsible for ensuring that the other agencies fulfill their proper role in national initiatives and that territorial disputes do not interfere with national priorities.

It is notable that copyright operations in Japan are run by the Ministry of Education. This means that copyright is subservient to educational needs, a principle that finds expression many times in the Japanese copyright laws. For example, no copyright owner may forbid the use of his material in a textbook approved by Monbusho. If the owner and author are unable to agree, the matter is referred to the ACA and a fair royalty is set. Provisions such as these place Japan in an excellent posture to allow use of copyrighted materials in digital libraries.

The fact that Japan has a defined and funded digital information policy, combined with a governmental structure to carry it out, means that Japan is in a strong position to lead the United States in the area of digital information organization.

Multimedia

The Japanese place great emphasis on multimedia and regard it as the next "breakthrough" industry in which Japan can become a world leader. "Multimedia software possesses highly effective powers of expression, appealing to the human senses of vision and hearing through voice and video. It therefore constitutes a highly important form of support for contents and applications in an advanced information society." (MITI report). In furtherance of this vision, Japan has established regional multimedia centers and "inter-media factory cities" as foci for producing content to be distributed via "information parks" to be located all over Japan. The multimedia centers are charged with the following:

• supplying advanced multimedia equipment
• developing multimedia content
• fostering and training creative multimedia personnel
• interacting with the intellectual property rights system
• cultivating multimedia information literacy among the population

Japan's multimedia initiative is wide-ranging and well motivated. In particular, the need to acclimatize the country to the power of multimedia and the need to train professionals, from cognitive psychologists to programmers and multimedia artists, is fully recognized in Japan.

The effects of Japan's policy objectives were observed by the WTEC group. Matsushita has an entire building devoted to multimedia in which sales and marketing people work side by side with scientists and engineers to develop useful products. Toppan Printing has an entire division devoted to multimedia production, which it views as the printing industry of the 21st century. Nara Institute and the National Ethnological Museum are set up to allow users to retrieve information in a variety of media, including text display, sound and videodisk. Some of the most impressive observations were the emphasis on multimedia at Toppan Printing and the comprehensively digitized National Ethnological Museum.

Databases

Databases are at the core of any digital information effort. In the early 1990s, Japan perceived that it lagged behind other industrialized nations in database creation because of a tendency among corporations and government agencies not to share information. To remedy the problem, the Japanese government established a "New Industry Creation Database Center" to encourage the growth of commercial database business by providing government administrative information in electronic form.

Cooperation Among Industry, Government and Universities

Japan is often said to have a business advantage over the United States in that MITI is able to fund projects that could not take hold here if traditional capital sources were relied upon and also that the agency's very existence blurs the line between government and industry and even between competitors in the same industry. This view is correct. MITI has the ability to compel universities and corporations to work together, which often results in synergy that would otherwise not exist. Two such efforts were not viewed by the WTEC group. The first is being conducted by The Tokyo Institute of Technology, which operates the National Center for Overseas Periodicals in Science and Technology and has a digital library accessible over a campus-wide network. Another project is the Union Catalog Experiment, a consortium of about 20 libraries that are merging their catalogs into a single digital one that will serve the needs of all its members.

To summarize, the effect of Japan's digital information policy is that it positions the country to exploit emerging technology without having to wait for market forces to produce the necessary capital. It is able to invest in emerging technologies before they are of proven profitability. The advantages to Japan, relative to the United States are as follows:

• In the United States, corporations rarely fund infrastructure unless they can immediately begin recouping any investment.
• In the United States, technological cooperation between business competitors is very difficult because of antitrust concerns.
• In the United States, academic institutions compete for scarce government funding through voluntary proposals; the agencies do not themselves create consortia.
• While U.S. funding agencies have well-articulated agendas, the nation as a whole does not have an overall digital library policy.