JAPANESE TELEVISION BROADCAST POLICY-MAKING ANALYSIS:
FROM ANALOG TO DIGITAL 1987-1997
Tsutomu Kanayama
Department of Journalism
Sophia University
Address: 7-1 Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo, Japan
zip 102-8554
Phone: +81-3-3238-3629
Fax: +81-3-3238-3094
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Paper submitted to the Communication Technology and Policy Division at the
annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass
Communication, New Orleans, LA, August 1999.
ABSTRACT
Tsutomu Kanayama
Japanese Television Broadcast Policy-making Analysis:
From Analog to Digital 1987-1997
This paper has chosen to examine the way Japan came to make the transition from
analog to digital standards in terrestrial and satellite broadcasting from 1987
to 1997, an earth-shaking decade for Japan's broadcast industry. Particularly,
this study is to investigate political actors involved for the policy-making
processes which affected television broadcasting based on the central question
of who were the most influential actors.
INTRODUCTION
Japan's broadcasting industry is facing a time of great upheaval, for it is
trying to decide the extent to which it will follow the world trend toward
digitization. This is an especially painful - and expensive - decision, not
just because Japan has a huge investment in the analog systems of broadcasting,
but because it has spent millions, perhaps billions, of yen trying to promote a
world standard for High Definition Television (HDTV), which this decision will
make obsolete. What is more, the move to digital, accompanied by broadcast
deregulation and the growth of satellite broadcasting, threatens to undermine
long-established structures. Japan has been a frontrunner in media electronics
and has hosted one of the most advanced telecommunications systems in the world.
In the case of HDTV, it developed and brought to market a product that had no
parallel anywhere. Yet, in the 1990s, it found itself far behind its nearest
competitors in embracing the computer age which had taken over the world of
telecommunications.
In considering the various factors influencing policy-making in Japan, it is
clear that not only timing but political climate have played an important role.
Over the years a delicate balance has been struck between the broadcasters, the
dominant political party, and the government ministries. Sometimes it seemed
that decisions that were made served the national interest, but sometimes not.
One of the very clear characteristics of broadcasting research in Japan is that
there are many more studies focusing on the cultural and social impact of
broadcasting than there are studies focusing on broadcast policy-making and
industrial economic impact.
Kanayama (1998) analyzed that there was almost no analysis of the policy-making
which shaped, regulated, and guided the growth of television broadcast program
services in contemporary Japan. Almost all studies fail to explore political
aspects of the public policy-making approach, especially regarding who are the
players influencing Japan's decision-making for broadcasting. In fact,
broadcast policy-making literature of Japan generally has focused on descriptive
explanations of how the policy was formulated and how it might affect the
broadcast business.
In the atmosphere of political restructuring since the late 1980s, even Japan's
stubborn black-box policy-making process has been forced to change. In this
regard, this study proposes to examine what has happened to the process for
making broadcast policy during this tumultuous era. This paper has chosen to
examine the way Japan came to make the transition from analog to digital
standards in terrestrial and satellite broadcasting from 1987 to 1997, an
earth-shaking decade for Japan's broadcast industry.
Current Status of Japan's Broadcasting
The first television signal signed off in 1954 by Nippon Television Network
Corp. (NTV) and a year later NHK followed. Currently Japan has a public
broadcasting station, widely know as Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) and five
commercial network stations, such as Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS), Nippon
Television Network Corp.(NTV), Asahi National Broadcasting Corp. (ANB), Fuji
Television Corp. (CX), and Tokyo 12 Channel (TX). All five commercial networks
have 128 affiliated stations all over Japan. In addition, there are eighteen
independent stations. For years television broadcasting has enjoyed prestegious
status with unbelievably high interest rates in business due to the fact that
Japan's broadcasters had been strictly regulated, which means that there existed
strong barriers of entry in broadcasting marketplace.
RESEARCH BACKGROUND
The year 1987 was a symbolic time when Japan's powerful public broadcasting
station Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) started an aggressive satellite broadcast
service of 24-hour news and entertainment programming (Saito, 1989). Ten years
later, a digitization plan developed by the Ministry of Posts and
Telecommunications (MPT) had been announced. Japanese broadcasters would be
expected to move to a digital broadcasting service in terrestrial television by
the year 2000 (Kawamoto, 1997).
The decade from 1987 to 1997 represents the formulation of a new broadcast
policy in Japan. Hardly anyone believed such changes were possible, either by
external or internal forces, because broadcasters received privileged protection
by the Broadcast Law of Japan. A single technological innovation, digitization,
was the significant event which convinced the whole broadcast industry including
bureaucrats, politicians and broadcasters to make the change. The first steps
toward a policy reversal began with the implementation of satellite DBS services
and the attempt to deliver HDTV to Japan's living rooms.
The Context
The Advent of DBS Service
Communication satellites not only served professional broadcasters but also
television viewers in Japan. In 1989, after two years of testing by NHK, Japan's
first commercial Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) service started business
operation (Nobe and Oto, 1996). The start of DBS services meant that Japan's
well-established terrestrial broadcasting system, in operation since World War
II, was now seriously threatened.
The DBS service, which broke through over 40 years of conservative regulatory
framework of broadcasting, politicized Japan's broadcasters. To harmonize the
needs of the traditional broadcasters and yet accommodate the new DBS
broadcasters, the Broadcast Law was revised in 1989. The revised Broadcast Law
permitted competition and the introduction of new services. Non-conventional
broadcasters were invited to participate in the broadcast marketplace. But
satellite services were begun based on the assumption that Japan would keep its
analog transmission standard, even while industrialized countries in North
America and Europe were considering conversion to digital television.
The Digital Age and Japan's HDTV Dilemma
Japan's predicament was caused by its technologically advanced High Definition
Television (HDTV) system. The world's leader in HDTV development, Japan was
locked into an analog system which it had introduced to the world in 1981.
Because of the wide bandwidth needed to transmit analog HDTV, only satellite
transmission could serve this task (Takahashi, 1992).
Japan had aspired to become a leading technological innovator by diffusing its
HDTV products. At the U.S. Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in 1981,
Japan had aggressively promoted its HDTV standard (Ise, 1991). Positive
recognition had been given in 1984 by the international broadcasters gathered at
the U.S.-based National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention, so Japan
was eager to establish its system as the standard for future television.
However, the emerging trend of integrating computer and television functions
based on the digital standard ran counter to Japan's strategy which consisted of
getting the world to adopt its technologies which were entirely in analog
format. When the Grand Alliance, the consortium of U.S. companies proposing a
fully digitized future television standard, introduced its Advanced TV proposal
and its recommendations were accepted by the FCC, the world de facto standard
changed from analog to digital based TV technologies (Halonen, 1993). The real
irony is that Japan, the undisputed leader in developing a future television
standard, quite quickly became the follower.
The Connection between Japan's HDTV Standard and DBS
HDTV development in Japan had been synchronized with the development of Japan's
DBS system. Japan's DBS plan was a national project initiated by and developed
jointly with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and the public
broadcast network, Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) (Takahashi, 1992). To achieve its
ambition of shaping the future of television, the MPT was thought to take full
leadership and all others gave way to maintain harmony as DBS and HDTV systems
were under development.
The Next Generation TV Standard
Time and technological developments interfered with Japan's dream of dominating
the world's next television standard. Dramatic technological breakthroughs
occurred in the early 1990s. In the process of seeking compatibility between
television and computers and in searching for additional channel capacity,
world-class providers of direct-to-home (DTH) satellite systems sought digital
solutions. This speeded along development of digital cameras, television sets,
transmitters and other broadcast equipment.
While the world worked to perfect digital systems, Japan hesitated to change.
One of the main reasons for Japan's reluctance to go with a digital HDTV line
standard and distribution system was that its industry had too much invested in
analog systems. One way of explaining this reluctance to change is simply
economic. But there is a more fundamental explanation based on Japan's
state-centric model for technological development. DBS and HDTV development in
Japan was based on rational planning by its Ministry of Posts and
Telecommunications (MPT), so that all related industries were poised to move as
a group in support of a unified analog based standard (Johnson, 1982).
According to this view, Japan's industry seemed to be waiting for state
leadership to deliver on its promises, or at least advise them when and how they
should change directions.
Japan's Reaction to the World's Digital TV Trend
By the mid-1990s Japanese policy-makers knew clearly that Japan would be forced
to change directions. It was expected that local business interests with
investments in analog products would complain. These would include the powerful
Japanese Electronics Industry Development Association and the National
Association of Broadcasters of Japan (NABJ).
In March 1997, the chairman of a government-sponsored research group
recommended to the MPT that Japan move to a digital satellite system. The MPT
already had plans to launch a high-powered satellite, needed to succeed a
currently used satellite whose life-time power supply was due to expire around
the year 2000. The research group recommended that this new satellite have the
capability to carry a digital high-definition TV broadcasting signal (BS
Digital, 1997). And even before the Federal Communication Commission (FCC)
announced a future digital television plan for U.S. terrestrial waves in April
1997, Japan had announced its plan for terrestrial waves to be digitized before
2000 (MPT, 1997). So, two important announcements were made in 1997 concerning
digitization of TV signals. One was made in March by Japan and another in April
by the United States. Britain had already revised its Broadcast Law and plans
to launch its terrestrial digital delivery in early 1998.
Japan's DBS Status
Japan's satellite market is still at the fringe of television broadcasting.
The greater impact of conversion to digital will be felt by the well-established
terrestrial television delivery system and by the electronics and manufacturing
investments of Japan. Having said that, Japan's broadcast standard change from
analog to digital started from the attempt to deliver direct to home satellite
broadcasting in Japan and spilled over onto the terrestrial broadcasters.
Deregulation of the broadcast (BS) and communication (CS) satellites radically
altered a long-standing terrestrially dominated broadcast marketplace. The
extent to which these regulatory changes will affect the future business
activities of terrestrial and satellite broadcasters is beyond the scope of this
research. More important to this study is how all these regulatory/policy
decisions came to be made and who were the main players leading up to a
standards shift to digital.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The theoretical bases for this paper are similar to those used in studies of
budgetary policy analysis and industrial policy analysis. Japanese journalism
always mentions the role of the elites, but recent press coverage of the
restructuring of Japanese media suggests that the established bureaucracy is
being bypassed. In the 1960s, Robert A. Scalapino and Junnosuke Masumi argued
that "conservative dominance in Japan is the product of a triple alliance
between bureaucracy, key national interest groups, and the Liberal Democratic
Party (Scalpino and Matsui, 1962, p. 93)."
Similarly, Nathaniel Thayer concluded that the businessmen had influence over
the politicians, the politicians control the bureaucracy, and the bureaucrats
keep the businessmen in line, which is a natural system of checks and balances
(Thayer, 1969). It seems clear that the dominant model for examining Japanese
political processes has been the state-centric model (Nakane, 1970; Ishida,
1971; Yanaga, 1968). Also, Muramatsu and Krauss (1987), Sone (1986), Sato and
Matsuzaki (1986), Inoguchi (1983), Kabashima and Broadbent (1986) and Gary D.
Allinson (1989) have all critiqued the state-centric approach.
Muramatsu and Krauss (1987) in their counter arguments have emphasized two
political factors, which are the role of the elite and the Japanese national
consensus. First of all, they argued that Johnson neglects the role of
political variables, competition and conflict, such as political party strategy,
political leadership, relations among politicians, bureaucrats, and interest
groups.
Thus, politics cannot completely insulate the bureaucracy from outside
influence, and politics plays a role in shaping decisions. Secondly, focusing
only on national consensus on developmental goals in postwar Japan ignores the
many changes of development among Diet members in response to domestic and
international pressures. Finally, Japanese policy-making has shifted under the
pressures from the more influential politicians, parties, and the Diet to the
stronger and more autonomous interest groups. The established framework now
exercises less and less influence.
Research Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the policy-making processes in
Japan affecting television broadcasting, focusing on the central question of who
were the most influential actors. Special attention will be given to the time
period 1987-1997 when important decisions were made leading Japan to shift from
an analog to a digital broadcasting standard.
Research Questions
To understand the way Japanese policy relating to television broadcasting was
made during the modern period between 1987 and 1997, this research uses the 1997
decisions to move the country from an analog to a digital broadcast format as a
case study. Relationships among political actors such as bureaucrats, Diet
members [elected politicians in charge of the legislative body of Japanese
government which consists of the House of Councilors and House of
Representatives], broadcasters and related players in arriving at this
controversial reversal of policy are examined. Assuming that Japan's broadcast
policy process underwent changes in the decade between 1987 and 1997, some core
questions to be asked are:
1. What roles did bureaucrats, Diet members and
broadcasters play in shifting the broadcast standard to
digital? Were there other significant players?
2. What changes in the domestic political environment in
Japan occurred between 1987 and 1997 to support the decision to
shift from analog to digital standards?
3. During the period 1987 through 1997 what events both
within Japan and internationally contributed to creating a
climate in which the decision to shift from analog to digital
standards was accepted?
METHODOLOGY
Specifying the Problem for Analysis
In addition to the lack of theory, much research is still needed in Japanese
broadcast policy-making. One of the weaknesses of public-policy analysis is
that it often fails to explain why policy output takes a certain form. Profit
and loss cannot be explored, for example, in the absence of effective tools for
understanding timing on policy changes or how specific changes can influence the
evolution of politics over time (Satori, 1970).
The policy-making process that arose in Japan in the transition from analog to
digital standard is a significant case in Japanese political history. Because
broadcast policy-making in the decade between 1987 and 1997 was situated within
such a narrow context of political decisions, that process can be easily
researched.
One of the challenges of the case study method lies in the fact that social
scientists prefer to study the most representative issues and arguments.
However, it is not always possible to choose in advance which issues are most
important. This is especially true in politics. Policy-making is an
interactive process without a clear beginning or end (Lindblom, 1993). The
influence of different groups varies issue by issue over time. A case study can
consider only a few selected instances, those thought to be most representative
of the political environment. This study has the same potential challenges as a
case study.
Because this study is a case study of a particular policy-making process
affecting a large and powerful industry, interviews play a crucial part in
checking the accuracy of second-hand sources and clarifying points that need to
be made more precise and understandable.
Political Actors
Four principal categories of political actors are to be considered in analyzing
broadcasting policy-making. They are bureaucrats, Diet members, broadcasters,
and special players such as members of government taskforces and committees.
Each political actor group has its own characteristics and sub-groups. The
following describes each category.
Bureaucrats
Bureaucrats refer to government personnel working at the ministries and
agencies of the Japanese government. For purposes of research, bureaucrats are
the personnel at the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT). This
research particularly focuses on the MPT's broadcast bureau, which is in charge
of planning, drafting, and implementation of policies concerning the
broadcasting business and experiencing supervision over operators of TV, radio,
and CATV.
Diet Members
Diet members belong to the Diet, which is the nation's highest legislative
organ. Diet members working on the Committee on Communications are supposed to
be the core players of policy-making in broadcasting.
Broadcasters
Broadcasters are those responsible for delivering TV programs to television
households in Japan. Broadcasters are targeted players in this research since
they seek to influence and are influenced by decisions. There are several
sub-groups of broadcasters based on the different ways TV programs may be
delivered. They are the terrestrial broadcasters, the DBS broadcasters
utilizing broadcast (BS) satellite, and DBS broadcasters using communication
(CS) satellite as well as program distributors and satellite owners.
Japan's Broadcasters
Terrestrial
y 5 Commercial Networks and 102 Affiliate Stations - analog
y 12 Commercial Independent Stations - analog
y 1 Public Network (NHK) - analog
BS Satellite
y 1 Commercial Channel (WOWOW) - analog
y 2 public Channels (NHK) - analog
CS Satellite
y 14 Commercial Channels (Sky Port & Core Tech) - analog
y 124 Commercial Channels (DirecTV and PerfecTV) - digital
Researched As of December 1997
Special Players
Task force committee members reporting to the MPT are significant because they
are somewhat in an objective position, with the opportunity to talk freely about
the future of telecommunications policy to the MPT. All these players are
selected by MPT officials to discuss possible regulatory changes. Their special
contribution is to give the MPT input from outside.
Identifying Interviewees and Data Anaylysis
Attached appendix tables 1 to 4 list the interviewees whose perceptions and
observations will be used for analysis. The tables reflect the four main
political actor categories. All the interview data were transcribed, except for
those interviews in which tape-recording was not allowed. The recordings and
notes represent the narrative text which serves as the basis of this research.
As Emery Roe pointed out in Narrative Policy Analysis, the researcher approaches
the interview transcripts as a reflection of "reality" one element of a cluster
of larger narrative text (Roe, 1994).
DISCUSSION
In the eyes of interviewees there was a political climate and specific changes
which occurred in the 1987-1997 decade that made support for a new television
broadcasting standard possible.
Bureaucrats
As a whole, bureaucrats raised the following three elements as the most
significant of the political events leading up to adoption of the new digital
standard. These included:
1. the widespread movement toward a digital society both
domestically and internationally,
2. MPT's leadership in illustrating to Japanese society
the central importance of this issue, and
3. the influence of the bureaucrats in reshaping existing
industrial structures and loosening regulation by the
government.
Diet Members
Diet members picked two significant political events as most important in
supporting the change of broadcast standard from analog to digital. The first
event was the effort by the government to loosen regulatory rules in all
possible fields (kisei kanwa) and to relax government controls on the
marketplace (Uchihashi and Group 2001).
One of the interviewees also emphasized the changing approach to broadcast
regulation due to the globalization of media. As a result, zoku giin, Diet
members specialized in a particular sectoral policy as regional representatives
to the Diet could not intervene on behalf of local interests.
Broadcasters
Interviews with all broadcasters called attention to three political events:
international HDTV negotiations, world digitization trend, and weakened labor
union. The main event which a majority of the broadcasters noted motivating a
change from the analog to digital standard was the perceived impact of a world
trend toward digitization which politically stimulated Japan's response.
The other two factors were the weakening of the influence of the unions,
especially inside NHK, and the failure of international negotiations to position
the Japanese MUSE Hi-Vision standard as the worldwide standard, which became so
domestically and internationally politicized.
Special Players
A group of special players were in a position to follow the domestic and
international events surrounding the digital policy changes with perhaps more
objective eyes. They were the telecommunication and broadcast scholars at
Japan's universities and media critics who served as opinion leaders in shaping
public opinion. Due to their highly specialized knowledge, these persons were
often involved in government task forces and committees.
The single item most noted by the group of special players was the fact that
world digitization forced Japan to move in that direction. Also, collapse of the
LDP in 1993 had an influences on policy-making since that event changed the
political balance between influential bureaucrats and Diet members.
Regarding the loosening of regulatory controls, the special players were well
aware of the significance of these decisions in the lead up to digitization,
while broadcasters rarely pointed them out. One of those interviewed was of the
opinion that international pressures over trade was what forced Japan to open
its telecommunications market. Those pressures had an indirect but marked impact
on broadcast policy-making.
Answering the Research Questions
After going through the data generated by the interviews, it is clear that
there are both subjective and objective aspects to the transition from an analog
to a digital standard between 1987 and 1997. The interviews served as a rich
data source for answering the research questions posed. What follows are answers
to the questions identified.
1. What roles did bureaucrats, Diet members and
broadcasters play in shifting the broadcast standard to
digital? Were there other significant players?
Bureaucrats played a significant role whether their policy-making approach and
its outcomes were good or bad. However, the strength of their position and the
nature of their influence changed as their license giving powers diminished and
they assumed greater responsibilities for telecommunications as well as
broadcasting.
Diet members were supposed to decide everything for the good of the nation.
However, lacking special knowledge and the collapse of the dominant LDP-led
party politics gave bureaucrats a chance to take a more dominant role in the
broadcast policy-making arena. Due to the bureaucrats' technological
preparedness, made more obvious by the accelerated pace of digitization, they
assumed the role of technology gurus. In turn, Diet members were given
preferable treatment by broadcasters.
Where were the broadcasters? Japan's traditional broadcast policy-making has
relied on the licensing authority and its administration by the MPT. In terms of
Japan's moving toward a digital broadcast standard, the MPT always had this
final card and never released that power.
In sum, the broadcasters had always stood in the waiting room until someone's
name was called and by doing so they could expect to get favors from the
politicians and from the government bureaucrats. By 1997, both the commercial
broadcasters and NHK had come to realize that the environment had changed.
Were there other significant players? Indeed, due to the impact of worldwide
digitization, additional telecommunications-related players were seeking to
enter the Japanese broadcast market. However, there is no evidence that
international players served any significant role in shaping Japan's decision to
change its broadcast standard from analog to digital.
It is clear that terrestrial broadcasters still enjoy high status as the major
force in Japan's broadcast industry. Having said that, Sony's move to enter the
digital communication (CS) satellite broadcasting marketplace is a potentially
big threat to that dominance. For years, Sony had held off entering the field of
broadcasting due to opposition from terrestrial broadcasters and regulators. As
one of the consumer electronics giants of Japan, Sony has been under the
supervision of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). Finally,
Sony has attained its longtime dream of being a content provider in the
broadcast marketplace, a market regulated by the Ministry of Posts and
Telecommunications (MPT).
2. What changes in the domestic political environment in
Japan occurred between 1987 and 1997 to support the decision to
shift from analog to digital standards?
The long-standing LDP-led conservative politics of Japan ended in 1993 by a
vote of non-confidence at the Diet. Thereafter, the political balance of power
dramatically changed. Before the LDP-dominated administration collapsed, the LDP
legislators had frequently checked their territories and intervened on behalf of
constituent interests. However, when the new administration took over, most of
those controls ceased to operate and there was a political vacuum over
bureaucratic power. This created increased opportunities for the MPT and gave it
the authority it needed to shape policy in broadcasting. Ironically, it seems
that the MPT was the only entity in the country taking initiatives in broadcast
policy-making, even though MPT policy-making and its consequences were not
readily accepted.
3. During the period 1987 through 1997 what events both
within Japan and internationally contributed to creating a
climate in which the decision to shift from analog to digital
standards was accepted?
MPT leadership in explaining and promoting a digital standards transition was
considered by almost all persons interviewed to be a principal factor, but there
were often events, such as when Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. came to Japan to
start up the new satellite system JSkyB and approached TV Asahi, one of the
network stations, about buying 21 percent of its stock. Also, Sony's alliance
with JSkyB shook the conventional broadcasters due to the fact that Sony is not
only a consumer electronics company but a wealthy content provider in the
broadcasting business, owning such properties as Columbia Pictures and Tristar
Movies.
Internationally, the digital broadcasting strategies announced in the United
States and in Great Britain pricked the interest of the Japanese society as a
whole and pushed the MPT to respond on behalf of Japan as a leader among the
advanced technological countries. The result was a hurry-up plan to fully
embrace the digital format announced by the MPT with almost no consultation with
their formerly close partners at the NHK or among the Diet members specializing
in telecommunications.
CONCLUSION
Based on answering to the questions, it becomes clear that a state-centric
approach exists. The data shows that a bureaucracy dominant approach was
significantly present and functioning. It seems that the MPT bureaucrats were
the ones most aware of the changing world trend and its potential impact on
Japanese society. In the conservative LDP-dominated political system, the MPT
had enjoyed a privileged position in which Diet members approached them to
intervene on behalf of broadcasters' interests and, by responding to those
requests, the MPT gained power it could use in getting its way with the
politicians, such as when the MPT bureaucrats wanted to get particular drafts
passed at the Diet.
In the age of digitization, however, and in the post-LDP era, the MPT assumed a
more decisive role, and sought to expand its field of influence. Bringing
digitization into the broadcasting business was a major achievement of the MPT.
However, the outcome of its rapid decisions was not well-harmonized in the
marketplace. Confusion was often the result of the MPT emphasizing and
permitting a free market approach.
As a conclusion, the researcher summarizes the results of the data arguing that
the case of a change from an analog to a digital standard between 1987 and 1997
in Japan is something of an exception due to the fact that the MPT bureaucrats
in this case assumed responsibility for making a major policy change with very
little consultation with either politicians or market players. The research
shows, however, that the days of the elite bureaucrat and the unchecked
bureaucracy are over. This is due to technolgical advancements and societal
changes.
It must be noted that this research represents a snapshot in time. The
regulatory process is on-going. It is important to track the behaviors of the
MPT and other actor groups to see what develops. Given the failures of the
press in keeping the general public informed during the 1987 to 1997 period,
there is value in utilizing a more pluralistic or society centric approach, to
include research into such issues as "role of media" and "role of society.
There are agandas for future study.
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Yanaga, C. (1968). Big Business in Japanese Politics. New
Haven: Yale University Press.
APPENDICIES
* Between May 20 and June 18, 1997, thirty-nine interviews were conducted mainly
in Tokyo area.
Table 1: Bureaucrats Interviewed
Name
Position
Belonging
a. Akimasa Egawa
Executive Manager(retired)
MPT Broadcasting Bureau
b. Eisaku Ando
Vice Manager
Broadcast Policy Division
c. Tameyasu Tsukada
Director
Satellite Broadcast Division
d. Katsumi Osuga
Former Director
Space Communications Policy Division
e. Nobuhiro Takeuchi
Executive Planner
MPT Minister's Secretariat
Table 2: Diet Members Interviewed
Name
Position
Belonging
a. Sadao Fuchigami
Committee on Communication
House of Councilors
b. Keiji Furuya
Committee on Communication
House of Representatives
Table 3: Broadcasters Interviewed
Name
Position
Belonging
a. Masami Watanabe
Policy Coordinator
NABJ
b. Takayasu Yamasaki
Former Secretary to NHK Chairman
NHK Integrated Technology
c. Kyoko Ito
Senior Researcher
NHK Broadcast Culture Research Institute
d. Nobuaki Chikuma
President of Media Development Division
Tokyo Broadcasting System
e. Moriyoshi Saito
President
Mainichi Broadcasting System
f. Sumio Nishimura
Manager Media Planning Division
Television Yamaguchi System
g. Katsuyuki
Hachimori
Corporate Communication Chief
Japan Satellite Broadcasting
h. Yasuhiro Saito
Assistant General Manager
PerfecTV
i. Katsuhiko
Okazaki
Corporate Communication
JSkyB
j. Yoshio Kanbe
Executive Manager
DirecTV Japan
k. Hiroko Takikawa
Financial Markets News
Bloomberg
l. Fumio Eguchi
DBS Planning Executive
Gaora
m. Takashi
Kobayashi
President
Japan Cable Television
n. Takeshi
Hashimoto
Former Executive Manager
Space Communication Corporation (SCC)
o. Takeshi
Hashimoto
General Manager, Telecom Network Business
Mitsubishi Corporation
p. Toshio Mikuriya
General Manager, Visual Media Department
Sumitomo Corporation
q. Yasuhiro Saito
Manager
C. Itoh & Co., Ltd.
Table 4: Special Players Interviewed
Name
Position
Belonging
a. Koichi Kobayashi
Professor
University of Tokyo
b. Shigehiko Naoe
Professor
Chuo University
c. Yoshihiro Oto
Lecturer
Sophia University
d. Miiko Kodama
Professor
Musashi University
e. Koichi Baba
Media Analyst
Experienced Journalist
f. Tomohiko Masaki
Media Analyst
Kei Communications
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