"Japan's Regulatory Reform -- Commitment for Competitive Regime? "

Keiko Hatta Researcher, InfoCom Research Inc., Tokyo

Abstract

The basic questions raised in this paper will be
- How can NTT's break-up assessed? i.e. Is it possible to call
it genuine so that each separate company will become independent,
at least in the long-term?
-(How has the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications' regulatory
stance changed? Is the apparent move from discretionary to due
process approach profound if time-consuming?
- What is the power of the holding company and the MPT's
influence on it?
- How local competition is regarded by the regulator and
regulatee, particularly who will construct broadband local network,
or can CATV business be a serious contributor?
While they involve a number of further issues, the paper places its
main interest on the development of competitive rules. If Japan is
struggling to build a clear and transparent system for foreign
competitors, it may not be because the country is looking to
improved productive efficiency but because inefficiency in economic
system is doing harm. For this reason, the analysis can be an
incentive study -- how or whether competitive system has
superseded the traditional system of industry protection. The historical evidences draw very much upon the arguments given in the author's 1996 paper which focuses on the events during and before the organizational review in 1995-96, as well as the detailed look at the recent government and industry activities since then. Bibliographic References Competition and Regulation in the Japanese Telecommunications, RPRC Working Paper, No.6 1996, Regulatory Policy Research Centre, Hertford College, Oxford "'The Basic Rules for Interconnection' and a New Regulatory Environment" (in Japanese), InfoCom Review, April 1997, Tokyo ------------------ RFC822 Header Follows ------------------ Received: by ei.com with ADMIN;27 Mar 1997 06:43:00 -0500 Received: from mx2.smtp.psi.net ([38.9.26.2]) by mail.ei.com (Netscape Mail Server v2.0) with ESMTP id AAA192 for <tprc@ei.com>; Thu, 27 Mar 1997 06:37:55 -0500 Received: from gatekeeper.icr.co.jp by mx2.smtp.psi.net (8.8.3/SMI-5.4-PSI) id GAA04013; Thu, 27 Mar 1997 06:10:36 -0500 (EST) From: hatta@icr.co.jp Received: from erlang.icr.co.jp by gatekeeper.icr.co.jp; (5.65/1.1.8.2/29Jun95-0431PM) id AA20316; Thu, 27 Mar 1997 20:20:26 +0900 Received: by erlang.icr.co.jp; (5.65/1.1.8.2/29Jun95-0601PM) id AA08432; Thu, 27 Mar 1997 20:13:06 +0900 Received: from smgate by erlang.icr.co.jp; (5.65/1.1.8.2/29Jun95-0601PM) id AA07543; Thu, 27 Mar 1997 20:13:01 +0900 Received: from ccMail by smgate.icr.co.jp (ccMail Link to SMTP R6.0) id AA859460914; Thu, 27 Mar 97 20:08:37 +0900 Message-Id: <9703278594.AA859460914@smgate.icr.co.jp> X-Mailer: ccMail Link to SMTP R6.0 Date: Thu, 27 Mar 97 20:17:44 +0900 To: <tprc@ei.com> Subject: Abstract submission Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-2022-JP Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit