3.The growing role played by electronics, information and communication technologies

In this 40-year span, the last 10 years stand out in the progress of electronics, information and communication technologies and in the extent of the impact they have made on society. Figure 1 shows the changes in the contribution to real GDP of major industries in Japan over time. Unlike other industries, the information communication industry has grown consistently at an average annual rate of 7%, and its contribution to GDP stood out from the rest at about 70 trillion yen in 2006. Its influence on our lives has been continuing to grow. For example, the number of mobile phone users has exceeded 100 million. The mobile phone boom is so phenomenal that there are a large number of people who cannot feel secure, whether in private or at work, without a mobile phone handy, and a serious controversy has erupted over whether school children should be allowed to have mobile phones or to bring them to school. There has also been rapid penetration of broadband access to the Internet. Over the five-year period up to March 2008 the number of FTTH subscribers increased tenfold, from about 1.2 million to 12 million. The Internet is now accessed by 70% of the population in Japan. The country enjoys one of the best Internet environments in the world, in which people have broadband access to the Internet at the world’s lowest charges, bringing far-reaching benefits to people’s daily lives, education, medical and nursing care, and business activities.A variety of Web2.0 applications, such as blogs, SNS, YouTube, and Second Life, have emerged and captured the imagination of millions of users in a short time. The size of Internet-related business now exceeds 2 trillion yen and it still continues to expand. Figure 2 shows its breakdown in 2007.

The size of the entire content industry was 13.8 trillion yen, of which about 10% or 1.3 trillion yen was attributable to the business of content sharing via the Internet or mobile phones, and this volume is increasing rapidly. The broadcasting business earns 4.4 trillion yen annually.
As TV broadcasting becomes completely digital in 2011 in Japan, new businesses are expected to emerge and grow as a result of the convergence of the existing broadcasting business with businesses related to the Internet, the NGN and mobile phone services. Today, content industries, such as publishing, advertising, newspapers and broadcasting, are confronting a major change in their industrial structure. Figure 3 shows the change in the relationship between media and content. Although these changes are yet to penetrate the fields of education, medical and nursing care, e-government and community services, if they do, their impact cannot be overestimated. All told, electronics, information and communication technologies, the very technologies covered by the IEICE, are one of the key elements that support modern society. As a champion of innovation in this technology, the IEICE has made a huge contribution to society.