Geographical Research on the Local Information Provision using the Internet and Mobile Phone

本研究旨在对互联网和移动的手机提供本地信息的情况进行实证分析，研究结果如下：1）本地信息网站在PC互联网上的比例高于移动的手机。2）移动的电话的地方信息网站的地理分布与日本一般城市系统的等级相对应。3）移动的电话的地理定位技术通过NTT-docomo的i-Area服务和KDDI的基于GPS的搜索服务应用于地方信息提供。各地区的购物街经营着许多网站。几乎所有的网站都包含购物街的轮廓，链接到个别商店，活动信息。5）地方政府官方网站的开通时间与政府规模没有明显的相关性; 6）小规模的地方政府倾向于强调对区域外的信息提供。地方自治市的规模也会影响到利用网站应对自然灾害和为外国人提供信息服务的能力。7）尽管日本政府采取了推进电子地方政府的政策，但在线公共服务还没有普及到中小自治市。8）在周边小地区，各种地方产品的电子商务具有振兴地方经济的潜力。

This study aims to carry out an empirical analysis on the provision of local information using Internet and mobile phone.The results of the study are summarized as below.1) The percentage of local information websites is higher for PC Internet than for mobile phone. This fact suggests the difference of the diffusion stage between the means of local information provision.2) The geographical distribution of local information websites of mobile phone corresponds to the hierarchy of general urban system of Japan.3) Geographical positioning techniques of mobile phone are applied to the local information provision through the i-Area services by NTT-docomo and GPS based search service by KDDI.4) Shopping streets in various regions run a number of websites. Almost all websites contain the outline of the shopping street, links to individual shops, event information. The portion of shopping streets running their own websites is larger in the larger cities.5) The opening period of official website by local government has no clear correlation to the size of municipalities.6) Small local governments tend to emphasize the information provision to the outside of the region. The size of local municipality is also affect to dealing with natural disasters using the website and the information services for foreign residents.7) In spite of the Japanese Government's policy to promote e-local government, online public services have not yet diffused into small and medium-sized municipalities.8) E-commerce of various local products in small peripheral areas has some potentialities to invigorate the local economy.