REGIONAL INNOVATION STRATEGIES AND INFORMATION SOCIETY: A REVIEW OF GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES IN JAPAN

Abstract

Regional information development policies such as “teletopia”, “new media community”, “greentopia”, “intelligent city”, “information-oriented and futuristic city” and other new media facility promotion of various ministries of the central government in Japan are reviewed with its relationship to the Fourth Comprehensive National Development Plan and possible impacts on the shape of the national land system. It is argued that these policies are not regional imbalance correctors as they are only awarded to regions with innovative visions and implementation abilities, not necessarily the backward ones. Moreover, the groups of information haves and have-nots will appear as deregulation demands for self-financing. Nevertheless, success in these infrastructure building will help secure nodal points of information and communication for the emerging networked society, contributing to the formation of a multinuclear national land system.