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THE ‘COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION’ AND THE HOUSEHOLD: SOME THOUGHTS FROM THE JAPANESE EXPERIENCE
Abstract
In recent years there has been much debate on the likely impact of new communications media on the household. In Japan, where progress in the development and application of communications technology has been rapid, a large-scale experiment was conducted between 1984 and 1987 to test public acceptance of these media. This article examines some of the major findings of the experiment. It concludes that household use of the new media in the immediate future is likely to be very limited. In the longer run such use may expand, but a number of important technological and social changes will be necessary before large-scale expansion can occur.
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NOTES AND REFERENCES
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A. Toffler, The Third Wave, William Morrow, New York, 1980, pp. 210–223.
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Toffler, op. cit., pp. 218–19. On the possibilities of spatial decentralisation as a consequence of new telecommunications technology, see also J. Nilles, “Teleworking from home”, in T. Forester (ed.), The Information Technology Revolution, Oxford, Basil Blackwell 1985, pp. 202–08; Peter Hall, “The world and Europe”, in T. Brotchie et al. (eds), The Future of Urban Form, London & Sydney, Croom Helm, 1985, pp. 17–30.
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See B. Berch, “The resurrection of out-work”, Monthly Review, 37, 6, 1985, pp. 37–46; M.H. Olson and J.B. Primps, “Working at home with computers: work and non-work issues”, Journal of Social Issues, 30, 3, 1984, pp. 99–112; W. L. Renfro, “Second thoughts on moving the office home”, in T. Forester (ed.), op. cit., pp. 209–215; T.D. Halloran, “The social implications of technological innovations in communications”, in M. Traber (ed.), The Myth of the Information Revolution, Beverly Hills and London, Sage Publications, 1986, pp. 46–63; L. Nichol, “Communications technology: economic and spatial impacts”, in M. Castells (ed.), High Technology, Space and Society, Beverly Hills and London, Sage Publications, 1985, pp. 191–209; T. Morris-Suzuki, “Centralisation and decentralisation in Japan's information society”, Media Information Australia, 44, 1987, pp. 48–54.
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ibid, p. 67.
Discussion by group of INS monitors April, 1987.
H. Uzawa, Kindai Keizaigaku no Tenkan, Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo, 1986, p. 45.
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ibid, p. 18.
Nyʉ Media Henshʉbu (ed.), Za Teretopia, p. 207.
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ibid, pp. 121–22.
See Nilles, op. cit.; Berch, op. cit.; Renfro, op. at.; L. A. Singleton, Telecommunications in the Information Age, 2nd edition, Cambridge Mass., Ballinger, 1986, Ch. 19.
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Takakura, op. cit. The videophone appeared to be more readily accepted in institutions such as schools than in households. See NTT (ed.), Yutaka na Kōdo Jōhō Shakai o Motomete, pp. 205–15.
Discussion by group of INS monitors, April, 1987.
See for example A. E. Imamura, Urban Japanese Housewives: At Home and in the Community, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1987.
J. Northcott, M. Fogarty and M. Trevor, Chips and Jobs: Acceptance of New Technology at Work, Policy Studies Institute, London, 1985, p. 106.
Naikaku Sōridaijin Kanbō Kōhōshitsu, Jōhō Shakai ni Kansuru Seron Chōsa, Tokyo, 1986.
Aronson, op. cit., p. 28.