Information Society Watch

August 29, 2007, Washington Post

Prohibitively high costs and poor speeds have often been attributed to low Internet penetration. However the Japanese example shows how both these factors have been overcome and Japan is now a leading force to reckon with in the area of broadband connections. The regulatory framework in Japan was stringent enough to compel big phone companies to open up wires to upstart Internet providers, enabling growth in the broadband sector. The Japanese government also invested heavily in better cables and offered subsidies and tax breaks to telecommunications companies which allowed them to launch a nationwide build-out of fiber-optic lines to homes which meant that Internet speeds were around 20 times faster than that in the US. The net result is that Japanese citizens now have uninterrupted access to high Internet speeds which are a must for education, the economy and the business.

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