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

本研究旨在对利用互联网和手机提供本地信息进行实证分析。研究结果总结如下：1)本地信息网站在PC互联网上的比例高于手机互联网。这一事实说明了地方信息提供方式在传播阶段的差异。2)手机本地信息网站的地理分布与日本一般城市系统的层次结构相对应。3)手机地理定位技术通过NTT-docomo的i-Area服务和kddi基于GPS的搜索服务，应用于本地信息提供。4)各地区的购物街都运行着多个网站。几乎所有的网站都包含购物街的轮廓，个别商店的链接，活动信息。在大城市中，经营自己网站的购物街的比例更大。5)地方政府官方网站开放时间与城市规模没有明显的相关性。6)小地方政府倾向于强调对外提供信息。当地自治市的规模也影响到使用网站和外国居民信息服务来处理自然灾害。7)尽管日本政府出台了推动电子地方政府的政策，但在线公共服务尚未普及到中小城市。8)周边小区域各种土特产的电子商务具有一定的搞活当地经济的潜力。

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.