Research on Regional Information Policies in Multimedia Era

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The purpose of our study is to investigate the actual situation of regional information policies carried by local governments with multimedia technology and to consider key factors to promote such policies. For this purpose, in the first year of our study, we investigated three rural localities, each of which is carrying out its policy in the field of tele-work, tele-medicine and tele-education. Through these investigations, we have found that cooperation with the central government in the aspects of fundraising and technology is a key factor to the success of information policies carried by localities in rural area.In the second year, we investigated four localities carrying regional information policies in the field of tele-medicine, which is the main field for information policies utilizing multimedia due to rapid aging in Japan. We also estimated the economic effects of such policies. From on-the-spot investigations, we have found that conformity of the adopted media such as CATV, ISDN network etc. to the purpose of the policy is a key factor to the success of tele-medicine policy. Our estimation of economic effects of tele-medicine has shown that, in the year 2050, 1.7 trillion yen of total hospitalization costs of the aged can be saved by the spread of such system.In the last year, we investigated four localities in Hokkaido, where geographical feature is greatly different from other part of Japan. The investigation has shown us that in Hokkaido, especially in less populated towns, needs for regional information policy are very strong but cost of implementing them tends to be expensive due to its geographical expanse. This observation suggests us that, for promoting regional information policies in Hokkaido, it is necessary to install different type of infrastructure from those in other area of Japan, such as wireless system through a communication satellite.