Q4. What are the roles of government in Japan for the growth of e-commerce

Japan Government acting the role as  a pusher, and here are the policy/action that it does for the growth of e-commerce

1. Promoting deregulation and e-commerce

Before 1990's

promote producers’ interests (e.g. copyright for music CDs)

√ profitable for producers

X at the expense of consumers

After mid-1990s  -  Present:

Promoting deregulation and e-commerce

Rise more competition

Average Electricity Prices for all Japanese Utilities

√Improve the general business environment

2. Splitting the telecom giant NTT

Before 1990's

•Only one telecommunication company --- NTT

X the connection charges are very high

After mid-1990s  -  Present:

•Telecom giant NTT split into 3 companies

Ø2 regional carriers(NTT East and NTT West)

Ø1 long-distance and international (NTT DoCoMo)

√Improve to access to the Internet

e.g. from May 2000 : cut monthly fixed charges by 50 percent

3. Established Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan (ECOM)

ØDevelop a common platform to work for the realization and expansion of e-commerce

√Improve the general business environment

Furthermore……

In order to meet the development of RFID system of the domestic IT industries, The Japan government reorganized ECOM as Next Generation Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan in 2005 .

ECOM aims at promoting e-commerce continuity. Not only popularising the knowledge and the using of new technology, but also developing emerging technologies such as RFID.

Under the control of ECOM, Japan provide a safety environment for global e-commerce.

4. Setting the “IT Basic Law”

According to the "IT Basic Law", the "IT Strategic Headquarters" was established and they made and announced the "e-Japan Strategy" as a national strategy for IT on January 22, 2001.

The "e-Japan Strategy" has several goals such as e-government will be realized by 2003 and the market size of e-commerce will grow to far exceed 70 trillion yen.

 source:http://www.uow.edu.au/~sharonb/japan.html
http://www.jipdec.or.jp/archives/ecom/journal/2008e/activity_report/activity_report.html