Japan Must Expand Digital Innovation Beyond Its Academic Oasis

Many Americans view Japan, slogging through its decade-long recession, as a nation asleep, stuck in its old ways as the wired-up globalized world zooms by. But you get a different image in a place like Kyoto in western Japan. This ancient city is the home of the prestigious public university that was recently named Asia’s best, edging out even Tokyo University in Asiaweek Magazine’s annual survey of higher education. It’s not hard to see why. Judging from the standards Kyoto is setting, Japan is far from somnolent: Its young people simply won’t stand for the country standing still.

An example of this campus’ innovative spirit is the ambitious project begun last fall: the first fully interactive university classes conducted live across the Pacific Ocean. Or rather, under it: It was via undersea fiber optic cable linking Kyoto University to UCLA. The pioneering effort represented the teamwork of UCLA’s Center for Digital Innovation and a similar group in Kyoto. Kyoto and UCLA were one step--and only one step--ahead of MIT and Singapore National University, which have their own plans to offer real-time instruction. But Kyoto University President Makato Nagao wanted to put his university first. “Modern Japan must lead, not follow,” he told me in his office recently. “This nation has been successful but it cannot afford to be complacent or it will fall behind. Universities must play a leadership role.”

Like many educators throughout Asia, Nagao needs absolutely no convincing of information technology’s power to immunize complacent countries against the diseases of technological parochialism and cultural inwardness. To this end, the Kyoto University president benefited from a major grant by Japan’s Ministry of Education--and the underwriting of the cable-line usage by Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, the predominant Japanese telecom. He also had the enthusiastic support of Kyoto students. I taught one of these pioneering courses from April through mid-July: 45 students at the Kyoto end and 75 in Los Angeles, originating from a fully wired hall at UCLA.

The well-informed Japanese students in my course were angry about their country’s political paralysis, demanding that Japan get with the globalization program and not get left behind. But they are well-aware of their nation’s self-imposed obstacles. First and foremost is high Internet costs. Students using their own e-mail and Internet accounts can easily add hundreds of dollars to their monthly phone bills if they aren’t careful. Japan’s connection fees are among the priciest in the world, and they are holding Japan back. Indeed, perhaps the sole student complaint about the Kyoto-UCLA project was from the Kyoto students who had a hard time completing their team Web-page assignments. They were limited to only several hours’ time on the Internet each day; the university budget simply could not allow more.

But suddenly this cost structure is being eroded, the result of a recently concluded bilateral negotiation between the U.S. and Japan. After many years, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, the Japanese leviathan, consented to reduce access fees to the NTT network. The agreement should spur the entry of foreign telecoms into the market, and over time should result in lower access costs to consumers, as well as MCI, AT&T;, Yahoo and others who want to play in Japan. To be sure, NTT’s agreement is to cut its sky-high connection fees by only a relatively modest, combined rate of 35% over the next two years. But what so often seems like snail’s-paced movement in the West is actually a bolt of lightning in Japan.

Over the long run, the NTT accord, reached just days before last week’s G-8 summit in Okinawa, may prove the most significant ever achieved by the U.S. with Japan. Says U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, “The Japanese gave ground to us in the negotiations only grudgingly, but every foot they gave up to us was to their own benefit. Economic development in this day and age is inconceivable without vigorous telecom competition that lowers costs and makes [information technology] usage as affordable as possible.”

The news of lower costs would certainly send a cheer through the study halls of Kyoto University, where too many students can’t afford to sign on until after 11 p.m., when rates drop. Their counterparts at UCLA, like many other American students, can sign on any time they want, and stay on for virtually as long as they want. This puts students all over Japan at a competitive disadvantage at a time when Japan’s future may well depend on it surfing more and sticking its head in the ground less. This is sometimes not so well understood in Tokyo, but they understand handsomely indeed in up-and-coming places like the academic halls of Kyoto.