THE "DIGITAL NEW DEAL" PROJECT

Information and telecommunications technology continues to advance rapidly. To develop the possibilities of this technology to the full, we need to reduce costs and improve the accessibility of services by creating a free and fair market for information and telecommunications. We also need to encourage the public sector to become a leading user of information technology so that it may serve as a driving force for dramatic growth in the information and telecommunications market and fuel a virtual cycle of competition to develop better and cheaper information and communications services.

Our proposal is that the prime minister himself should advocate the "Digital New Deal" project. This concept calls for the government-wide promotion of information technology so that we can create the world's most advanced information society by 2003 and so that people can benefit from an information society through more higher employment opportunities and higher living standards. This will require decisive moves to establish a structure to promote the project, including the establishment of a special secretariat with the authority to allocate key budgetary resources within the Advanced Information Society Promotion Headquarters.

THE "DREAM NETWORK" PROJECT AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ITS INSTITUTIONAL FOUNDATIONS THAT IMPROVE STANDARD OF LIVING AND CORPORATE MANAGEMENT

The government and industry should work together to develop the technology that will serve as the next and subsequent generations of information and telecommunications infrastructure and to develop institutional infrastructure to meet the needs of the digital era in the twenty-first century.

A. The Dream Network project (joint government-industry project)
Specific examples

1. User-friendly technology
   Readily accessible input-output systems (including ultra-compact automatic translation systems, voice input, eye-controlled input, and advanced graphic processing)
2. Development of advanced network security technology
   Protection of personal information, prevention of illegal access, etc.
3. Next-generation information and telecommunications technology
   Scalable networking (such as the development of a "Super-Internet" technology to allow all equipment, including information appliances, to be reciprocally controlled or connected over the Internet via wired or wireless connections), scalable computing (like super-distributed processing, super-parallel processing), large-capacity memory, super-microscopic semiconductor processing and assembly technology, etc.
4. Future-oriented fiberoptic network technology
   Optical technology for the transmission of information, including optical routers, optical devices, and optical network control systems
5. Promotion of intelligent transport systems (ITS)
   Development of ITS technology, etc.
6. Highly energy-saving technology
   Development of energy-saving and power-saving technology for information and telecommunications equipment, etc.
7. Information-mining technology
   Technology to retrieve and process required information from vast floods of data

B. Development of institutional foundation (twenty-first century information and telecommunications framework)

1. Introduction of a low-cost, flat-rate telecommunications charge for use of the Internet
2. Review of information and telecommunications laws (Telecommunications Business Law, etc.)
3. Development of systems responding to information society (revision of economic and social systems that have not taken digital and network systems into account, including laws concerning door-to-door sales, school education, and surveying)

REALIZATION OF A WORLD-CLASS "SUPER DIGITAL GOVERNMENT"BY 2003

The aim is to use information and telecommunications technology to the full to provide efficient, high-quality government services and to reduce the cost of administration. Outsourcing from the private sector should be used extensively.

Challenges

1. Use of electronic systems, in principle, for all government procurement, applications, reports, government certification, expenditure and revenue procedures, etc.
2. Establishment of an open data policy, with all administrative information to be available, in principle, electronically
3. Use of electronic systems, in principle, for all document exchanges within government
4. Establishment of an integrated network to be shared by all central and local government agencies and to serve as the foundation of an electronic administration, and the efficient provision of high-quality services
5. Establishment of specific numerical targets and schedules for the introduction of electronic systems by all central and local governments

Trigger projects(examples)

1. Selection of at least two symbolic projects for each government agency over the next three years to enable all application and procurement procedures to be handled electronically (including the electronic payment of processing charges and the creation of an integrated government certification system)
2. Use of electronic systems, in principle, for all documents processed, exchanged, and publicized within and between central government agencies within two years
3. Development of regional information, geographical information, cultural assets, etc., as digital assets and promotion of their public availability via networks
4. Use of personal IC cards to implement computerized administrative services and large-scale trials of one-stop services (starting with public servants)
5. Promoting informatization in the medical and welfare sectors (use of IC cards as health insurance certificates, electronic storage of medical records and receipts, and use of IT in public hospitals)

ADOPTION OF BASIC STRATEGY BY MARCH 2000 FOR INFORMATION-RELATED PROGRESS IN EDUCATION TO ACHIEVE DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENTS IN THE NATIONAL INFORMATION LITERACY (FORMULATION OF AN "INFORMATION LITERACY CHARTER")

A basic strategy centered on the use of information technology (IT) in education will be drafted and boldly implemented to cultivate the ability among a broad segment of the Japanese population to reap the benefits of information and telecommunications technology in the twenty-first century and to develop the human resources necessary to build an internationally competitive information and telecommunications society. The strategy should focus primarily on the use of IT in education.

Challenges

1. Achievement of the world's highest educational IT levels
2. Utilization of information and telecommunications technology as educational tools
3. Utilization of information and telecommunications technology to meet challenges facing schools
4. Establishment of specific numerical targets for the application of IT to education and of schedules for the achievement of those targets
5. Training of human resources to develop and use advanced information and telecommunications technology

Trigger projects(examples)

1. Provision of Internet access in all "classrooms," provision of high-capacity, low-cost access for elementary, middle, and high schools, and use of mobile systems and other wireless technology
2. Utilization of regional human resources and outsourcing of education
3. Establishment of Web site and utilization of e-mail by all schools (for communication between teachers and students and schools and families, promotion of close understanding among schools, and advancement of international exchange, etc.)
4. Special allocations from tax revenues to support IT use in public schools
5. Development of educational information database
6. Improvement of high-speed information networks linking universities and research institutes
7. Development of systems to enable the aged, handicapped people, and others to participate in the information and telecommunications society