助成

Institute forInternational Policy Studies
・Tokyo・

IIPS International Conference“The IT Revolution and the Transformation of Society”

Tokyo
November 5-6, 2003

“How Information Technology is Altering the Structure of Society”
By
Prof. Ryuichiro Matsubara
Professor
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, College of Arts andSciences Advanced Social and International Studies
University of Tokyo

5 November 2003
Institute for International Policy Studies

How Information Technology is Altering the Structureof Society
by Ryuichiro Matsubara

1. Commonly held beliefs about information technology
It has been said that with the establishment of the Internet, a dramatic change inthe economy is being effected, or alternatively, that a dramatic change in the economy
must be effected. However, the development of information technology has takenplace with breath-taking speed, and some of the theories have already been shown to befaulty, even at this early stage.
The following predictions have been made regarding the economic dimension of
the IT revolution.1
1. Macro economics—The theory of the “new economy.” Information technology will
increase productivity inexorably; in the extreme, the business cycle could even be erased.
2. Industry—As the IT industry takes center stage, the industrial world will see a shift fromthe old to the new. IT-related venture businesses will proliferate while traditional
businesses decline.
3. Business organization—Business structure will be revolutionized as a new form ofmanagement (which makes practical use of information technology) becomes predominant
and the connection between businesses and the market deepens. Within companies as well,management and individual offices will use e-mail to communicate directly—the primaryconsequence being that middle-management will be rendered unnecessary.
4. Consumers—The voice of the consumer will come to drive the market. In addition, since
many products used in the home will be computer-controlled, people’s lifestyles willchange radically and be much more convenient.
5. E-commerce—The Internet will revolutionize distribution, and essentially render
traditional distribution channels unnecessary. Manufacturers will sell directly to theconsumer, and relationships between businesses that are based on long-term transactions
will decline in importance. Increasingly, orders will be made directly by consumers.

What all these predictions have in common is that information technology will
inevitably change the existing macro economy and industrial structure, business1

organizations, and the distribution industry, and achieve market domination.
Inefficiencies that were present in traditional economic markets (and in their structuresand practices) will be circumvented by the introduction of information technology.
These assertions all share the neoclassical economic view of markets. According to theneoclassicists, if a state of perfect market competition exists, the basic principles of
welfare economics is achieved—in short, the market is in the most efficient state.
Among the required conditions for perfect competition are: (1) a large number ofparticipants, (2) homogenous quality of goods, (3) perfect information regarding priceand quality of goods, (4) unrestricted entry to and exit from industries, and (5)negligible transaction costs. If these conditions are satisfied, and if a market exists inwhich all the industries involved are free of technological externalities and are notpublic goods, the basic proposition of welfare economics is fulfilled, and an
economically desirable distribution of resources (or so-called “Pareto efficiency”) will
be achieved through free competition in the market.
However, in real-world economics the conditions for perfect competition have notcome close to being satisfied. Accordingly, the theories of monopoly and oligopoly, thetheories of monopolistic competition and public enterprise, and the theory of market
failure have been pursued, and only in those cases has government intervention in themarket been justified. In addition, the New Institutional Economics founded by R.
Course explains business organization in terms of various transaction costs that cannot
be ignored, such as those associated with searching and negotiating, contracts, oversight,
information disclosure, and dispute resolution. It could be said that the Japanesebusiness practices of long-term employment and long-standing relationships between
companies constitute a system that overcomes market failure.
However, information technology has the striking ability to spread information, toenable transactions to be carried out irrespective of place and time, and to gradually
reduce transaction costs. These factors supplement real-world markets, and the belief is
growing that perfect competition is actually achievable—not simply a theoretical ideal.
More specifically, the following has been posited. Originally, the evolution to an
information technology society was expected to come about through the connection ofindividual computers through the Internet acting as a digital, bi-directional medium. In
addition, an open network like the Internet will create competition between
telecommunications providers, and as a result, the costs of communications andtransactions were expected to come down. With this, distribution will not be limited todomestic distribution but will be greatly improved and extend overseas. In short,economic transactions will become borderless. Moreover, since communication speeds

2are expected to increase drastically, transactions will be conducted between parties
irrespective of time and location. This will also prevent identical goods from having
different prices because of the transportation costs occasioned by physical distance.
Since distribution networks will expand and become international, thus making it
easy to circumvent the regulations of the various countries concerned, the barriers toentry will come down. Formerly, consumers simply received product informationpassively from the mass media. With two-way communications, however, the consumer
could adopt a more active role and transmit and retrieve information as well. This willallow information on price and product quality to be perfectly disseminated. In
particular, BBS forums of all types will evaluate product quality and reinforce this trend.
Since this will make it more difficult for manufacturers to use advertising and publicity
effectively to tout superficial differences between products of equal quality, consumers
will be in the position of being able to reject such differentiation.
Information networks will enable direct transactions to be carried out, reducethe cost of transmitting information, and make it more difficult for large companies tosuccessfully utilize advertising and publicity to manipulate information. As a result of
these three factors, small businesses will be better able to enter specific industry
markets. These alone will not be sufficient to overcome a monopoly based on
economies of scale. However, the growth of mail order, which allows consumers tomake purchases from attractive glossy catalogs, will enable more companies to enter themarket.
In fact, EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), which was developed as a standard
business interface to digitize transactions over industry and national boundaries, and
CALS (Commerce at Light Speed: B2B e-commerce), which makes possible thepaperless exchange of information, have been introduced and are being widely adopted
by manufacturing organizations. At individual companies too, the introduction of
resources such as voice-mail, e-mail, and fax is removing the necessity for informationexchange via an organizational hierarchy. One particular result of this is that the
middle-management stratum, whose productivity has been questioned, is being branded
as unnecessary. Information for job-seekers will probably be increasingly available on
the Internet, and this may well increase worker mobility and sound the death-knell forthe life-time employment system. Middle management layoffs go hand-in-hand with thedevelopment of information technology. It is assumed that, in the labor market too, astate of perfect competition will be created.
For transactions, the traditional distribution industry has been limited in practiceby factors such as the physical distance of shops (both domestic and overseas), business3

hours, and account settlement requirements, and the traditional distribution industry has
existed because of these restrictions. However, since information technology wipes out
these limitations, the distribution industry was expected to be superseded by
e-commerce. If the Internet is incorporated into neoclassicist market theory, perfectmarket competition is achievable and ideal economic conditions are created. Stated inreverse, since up to now, markets have certainly not enjoyed perfect competition, it ispredicted that the traditional distribution industry will decline with the development of
e-commerce, and the middle-management strata in business organizations will be cut
out.
However, although in reality the distribution industry is being reorganized andmiddle-management is being reassessed, it is becoming clear that middle-management
is not simply being removed. In this paper the reasons for this will be considered.
However, it appears to be because the hypotheses of the neoclassicists regarding the
distribution industry, middle-management, and the empowerment of consumers are atvariance with reality. In the following sections the topics of consumption anddistribution are elaborated upon.
2. The realities of information technology
Certain characteristics of information technology had never been implemented byearlier technology. This has had a number of significant effects.
First, due to the vast increases in data-processing power which have occurred,
manufacturers and the distribution industry can now obtain concrete information on
consumer trends. Seven-Eleven Japan introduced POS (point-of-sale) systems in 1977,
and by 1982 had installed them in all their outlets. This came to serve as the prototype
for the application of modern e-commerce, both for “business-to-business” (B2B) and“business-to-consumer” (B2C) operations.

On the surface, POS systems make the processing of operations at the cash
register more efficient, accurate, and economical. In particular, the widespread adoptionof product barcodes has simplified the input of product prices. Sales information for
individual products at all stores is thus accumulated and tallied centrally, enabling
restocking orders to be made automatically online as well. Dedicated lines have beenlaid between businesses, enabling point-to-point exchange of electronic data.

4

Although this is a B2B application of information technology, even more
importantly, a POS system can accurately record information on consumer demands (aB2C application), thereby enabling more efficient distribution. POS data describing
consumer characteristics (such as sex and age) and the nature, location, and time of apurchase is used not only for re-ordering products that are sold out but also for
analyzing the demand cycle. In the past, attempting to anticipate required inventory wasvery much a hit-and-miss process. However, the ability to predict the demand cycle
enables “just-in-time” stock control, whereby products are delivered to the store justbefore the demand arises. This avoids both the risks of overstocks and of missed sales
opportunities. This is a major reason for the unique success of convenience stores inJapan—all the more so since the price of land in Japan has meant that over-stocking
alone costs money. The idea of the convenience store was devised in response to the
Law for Regulation of Large Stores, which was enacted in 1974. The aim was toconduct retail sales efficiently on small plots of land, and the POS system was a means
to that end.
Today, systems like that of Amazon.com, whereby consumers can order products
directly over the Internet, are touted as models of B2C e-commerce. However, this typeof system has not yet taken off completely because consumers are not accustomed totyping their own orders directly into their PCs.2 This is partly a problem of computer
literacy. The vast population of consumers who buy products does not fully coincidewith the PC-user population. However, sales data is being entered at the convenience
store’s register, and data (such as sex and age-group) relating to the purchaser is also
being collected. This data is transmitted electronically (together with the data describing
the time and place of the sale) to a central point, where the demand cycle is analyzed. In
this case, consumers are not passing their information to the company themselves,rather it is being entered by the clerk at the register. This is the original method ofcollecting this information, and though there is no personally identifiable information
being collected, it is a very effective method of reducing inventory.
Another important point is that, in reality, many consumers cannot makepurchasing decisions solely on the basis of what they see on a PC screen. In contrast,
someone who has received some sort of product information can drop into theneighborhood convenience store, reasonably sure that the products will be in stock, cansee the products there, and buy them. This is now becoming a business model forovercoming people’s inability to make the leap to buying products that they cannot viewin person.

5Thus, while the convenience store represented the earliest form of the information
technology business model, its unusual embrace of both electronic and real information
made it a powerful one.

Second, due to the spread of the Internet, the cost of transmitting specialized
information has been drastically reduced. Though perfect information would ensure
minimum demand, the prohibitive costs of transmitting information via the mass media
has prevented the establishment of some highly specialized product fields. The
availability of low-cost information delivery thus gave rise to cases in which the supply
side could ensure a profit. Due to this phenomenon, the possibility of establishinghighly specialized markets increased.
However, concern over consumption resulted in a greater degree of specialization.
Many of these markets were for products for which it had been difficult to establish amarket using the mass media. For this reason even specialized shops try to maintainwebsites. The emergence of cheap-to-administer websites as an advertising medium
enabled restaurants to announce seasonal changes to their menus, artists to publicize
their day-by-day schedules of activities, and people working in small businesses or athome to publicize their individual capabilities.
The new-found ability of interested parties to obtain highly specialized productinformation via electronic networks has a profound influence on the image of the
products themselves.
As noted by Baudrillard, attempts to differentiate products in the mass media
widely seen by the general public, have resulted in items such as gadgets and worthless
junk that impart strange and novel distinctions. However, on the Internet, where people
with knowledge in specialized fields often lurk, differences in specialized, but not rare,products can be indicated. In Japan’s domestic beer market, there was once competition
to differentiate brands by the shape of the special spout packaged with the beer. These
spouts, some of which made sounds or were shaped unusually, could be termed“gadgets.” Indeed, this kind of symbolic distinction was probably the only way toenable even those consumers who did not have a particular liking for beer todifferentiate between brands. By way of contrast, European-made beers (such as
Belgian beer) and Japanese local beers—even if they were outstanding products—were
only consumed by devotees and thus only enjoyed small markets. (In Japan until 1992,
when the provisions of the Liquor Tax Law were relaxed, beer could only be

6mass-produced.) However, information on this kind of minority-interest product is alsoavailable (via the Web sites of specialty shops), and due to information technology, beerfans can now easily access the information they seek. There are numerous specialist
sites for products such as ramen, and these are flourishing. One way of using such a sitewould be for a shop owner who had temporarily closed his shop due to illness to post
the announcement of the shop’s re-opening on the website. In this way, the owner could
send out the information the very day that the shop went back into business.
Third, it is easy to store and retrieve information. Essentially, mass media
information is a flow, which has a short life-span. Accordingly, this information has toinstantly attract mass interest. However, the Internet has a stock of information, andsince in many cases the cost of maintaining information on the Internet is extremely low,
information can remain accessible for a long time. Moreover, searching information,
whether in stocks or flows, is the strength of the electronic network.

Even before the advent of information technology, this trend had surfaced withthe establishment of the video rental business. In the past, unless a movie wasparticularly popular, it was impossible to see it again once it was no longer showing incinemas. However, with the establishment of the video rental business, information on
where to find rare videos and on where movies would next be screened was once again
exchanged. Thus, works of all kinds and from all periods were now freely accessible.
Thus, even long sought-after works for which there is little demand have renewed value.
The same process is taking place on a larger scale over the Internet. Old works and texts
are now stored en masse in electronic form, and thus can be retrieved easily. For sometime it has been anticipated that it will be possible via the Internet to search thecollections of the libraries of the entire world and to read books whose copyright has
expired. More recently, with the advent of broadband, it is likely that it may also
become possible to watch terrestrial TV broadcasts that were aired in the past.
In this way, how people gain experience, and how they communicate about it, willchange. Previously, only a particular generation was familiar with all of the Kurosawa
movies. Now, however, Kurosawa movies can easily be rented and appreciated bypeople of all ages. As a result, it is simply no longer possible to know what age group
Kurosawa fans belong to. It is possible that even teenagers are now fully conversant
with his works. Hence, due to anonymity in dialogue within virtual communities, more7

weight is now placed on people’s level of erudition than on their stated age or gender(which may be false).
Fourth, information about unique items is much more widely available. The
ordinary consumer can now participate in auctions for unique items. This could be said
to be an extension of the principle of Internet bulletin boards—that anyone canparticipate. In the case of the mass media, transmission of information is purely aone-way process. The telephone allows two-way communication; however, theinformation transmitted remains private. Thus, for example, it used to be that the only
way to find people who possessed specific goods or information was through personalconnections. However, with the advent of the bulletin board, a broad public appeal forsomeone possessing specific goods or information may now yield a response from justsuch a person. Net auctions are staged in venues such as the Rakuten mall and Yahoo,and here transactions are conducted vigorously in accordance with the principles of thebulletin board. These transactions are not confined to rare items; used cars, old books,
and real estate are also especially sought-after products. If their respective features arelisted in the form of a database, users can easily access information about them. These
markets are also growing by the day. Markets that depend on subtle physical andsymbolic differences have also been established.
Fifth, the bi-directional transmission of information has enabled specialized
information to be evaluated. It has already been stated that the number of fields inwhich a person can reliably examine information using their accumulated knowledge
about specialized and unique products, and make a purchase decision, is no more than
two or three. Nevertheless, if a person requires medical care, for example, he must takelife-or-death decisions regarding which hospital to go to and what treatment toundergo—even if he does not happen to possess any specialist knowledge. Despite theprogress of the IT revolution, in numerous fields people remain novices.
However, with the advent of the Internet, it is not only objective productknowledge that has gained exposure to public scrutiny. The same is also true of the kindof grassroots consumer product assessment that used to travel only by word of mouth. A
great number of websites have been set up that allow people to participate in theevaluation of products and shops in particular fields. In the evaluations of individual
restaurants and ramen shops described previously, some people who have attended themeven add a numerical score to the evaluation which they submit. No matter how many
advertisements a shop puts out, consumers will not be swayed by them alone. Instead,other people’s evaluations probably help them to gauge the accuracy of advertisements.

8This is significant, since guidebooks and the like which purport to include evaluations
cannot meet the cost of such a survey and are thus unable to conduct first-handevaluations.3
In contrast, in the case of evaluations on the Internet, although the evaluation
capabilities of the people concerned may vary, they have in fact personally tasted thewares. When people are consumers in fields in which they must rely substantially on theevaluations of others, this kind of information provides an effective means for reachinga decision. This enables people to become consumers in specialized fields. It could besaid that it is precisely the spread of these kinds of evaluations that is causing
consumers to diversify.
To reiterate, e-commerce is in fact progressing due to the following five attributes
of information technology: (1) high-speed data-processing, for analyzing how thedemands of consumers can vary according to location and time, even for identicalproducts; (2) reduced cost of information relating to specialized fields; (3) ease ofaccumulation and search of information; (4) possibility of access to information on
unique products; and (5) formulation of evaluations of specialist information.4
However, the characteristics given above are not enough to simply cut out middle
management, as described in neoclassical explanations. A distribution sector that sifts
products through competition with e-commerce may be possible, but it will probably beundergoing a thorough restructuring due to the influence of information technology. For
example, Seven-Eleven is meticulous not only about product selection but also in how
products are displayed. Though they are using past POS data in making this decision,
they also emphasize repeatedly the need to use direct observation and judgement.5 This
speaks directly to their policy of keeping abreast of the differences, changes, and shifts
in consumer sensitivities based on time and place, even for the same product.
Management instructors from around the country gather in Tokyo once a week toreceive instruction directly from the president. Obviously, middle management, whichthese people are, cannot be cut out, and guidance via mail or the Internet would not be
as effective for training purposes. Digital information, like e-mail, just does not achieve
understanding as well as live information.
3. What is distribution?
So, why has information technology failed to live up to the predictions of theneoclassical economic theories? The role of distribution, according to the neoclassicists,
is primarily to reduce the transaction costs associated with the time and space9

restrictions of real-world economics. Assuming there are costs involved in finding
business contacts, the distribution system sifts and selects the products and thereby
reduces the costs born by the consumer. In the age of information technology, productsifting and selection are done on web pages, which removes the distribution function.
Producers in the distribution system also reduce the costs of buying and selling bydealing with the aggregate demand of many consumers. Here as well, information
technology is a big help as it greatly reduces the burden of producers processing direct
consumer orders because it involves only handling copies of e-mails. In this sense,
information technology has replaced large swaths of the distribution process.
By the way, the concept of “product” has a special interpretation in the context of
distribution. Products are specified by their physical characteristics. Physically, oneumbrella may appear to be the same product at all times and in all places. However, if
there is a sudden downpour, despite weather reports to the contrary, those umbrellasplaced at the front of stores are different than those on a sunny day, at least in the eyesof the consumer. Event the neoclassicists differentiate products in specific time frames,
however, their “differentiation” assumes an objective observer. Things are different in
the real world, however, and the consumer is the one who determines if products are thesame or different. The observer can only see what the consumer has decided after thefact, and many product suppliers never find out the what the determination was. The
person who finds out first and provides the right product receives the profits.
Even physically identical products can top the sales charts or hit the trash bin
depending on “time and place.” “Dead products” are merchandise that cannot be sold nomatter how low the price goes.6 The distribution system serves also to remove “deadproducts.” F. A. Hayek said that transaction conditions completely change with “timeand place,” and the profit goes to the person who recognizes the difference in these
conditions. He also said that use of specific knowledge that varies with “time and place”
is one of the characteristics of markets. In terms of production, the lowest costs ofproducing a certain product is known only by one person in any given moment, and thelevel of demand cannot be known without competition. In other words, in any given
time or place, only a small group of people know the lowest cost for producing aparticular product and the size of the demand for that product. Both producers anddistributors rely on their limited knowledge in running their business and obtaining
profits. When someone acquires that profit, however, the knowledge of how it was done
starts to spread. That knowledge is passed on through the market. This is the concept ofthe markets as a process of discovering and transmitting knowledge.

10According to Hayek’s view, even physically identical products have differences
and similarities in an economic context. The very same product will have a different
value at different times and in different places. In the umbrella example, a sudden
downpour makes everyone want one, and on a clear day, they are useless things. Thus,
umbrellas placed near the storefront on a rainy day will be profitable. However, anumbrella on a rainy day will probably sell better in Japan than in Europe, where people
do not mind a little rain water. The value of the product changes with the location.
Discovering at what time and in which place umbrellas will be the hot seller is theunique function of markets. The distribution industry is involved in providing theservice of establishing the best conditions for selling the same product.
However, purchasing behavior will be affected by the differences in advertisingslogans and sales locations, even for the same product.7 This shows that the meaning of
consuming and purchasing behavior is not limited to the simple use of products asphysical objects. Even though purchasing decisions change with changes in thesignificance of a product, this does not imply a change in the utility formula and theemergence of irrational behavior. It is the significance of the product itself that changes
based on the current milieu, rather than the individual consumer.
This also suggests that the decision to consume is not based solely on productinformation. As many sociological explanations of consumption have pointed out,
consumers consider information from many channels simultaneously when making apurchasing decision. They may look at product ads on television, touch the product inthe store, listen to the explanations of the sales clerk, and listen to word-of-mouth.
Therefore, it is unreasonable to think that a purchasing decision will be madeimmediately after just seeing some information on a computer screen. Rather than being
irrational, this shows great care in decision making; we could say it is exceptionally
rational decision making.
The difference between the rational consumer in the neoclassical sense and thereal-world consumer is in their ability to make decisions about consumption
independently. As shown in Hiroshi Akuto’s research, people have only two fields inwhich they make knowledgeable, independent decisions about the veracity and qualityof specific pieces of information.8 Put another way, a person can never be more than afollower in the vast majority of fields in which they are interested. The salient point
here pertaining to information technology is that even though a great deal of specificinformation in specialized fields flows constantly over the Internet, the real-worldconsumer is not the neoclassical economic man who can make independent decisions
about consumption of products in all fields—a real consumer can only make those kinds

11

of decisions in very few fields. In other fields, the consumer must be a follower. This is
why discussion about standards for evaluating products on the Internet is so valuable tofollowers.
The distribution system possesses this quality; information technology, however,possesses the characteristics described in (1) through (5), and since these two systems
overlap, it will create a broad shift in consumer behavior. In the first quadrant (I) of thegraph, “bulk production/bulk consumption” has a central value to consumer behavior,
and a balance between supply and demand can be struck by lowering prices andincreasing demand while reducing supply. However, in the second quadrant (II), theresponse of demand to price becomes sluggish, which indicates a “dead product.” When
this happens, the power to determine the value of a product shifts to the consumer,
because consideration is given to the perception of value in addition to theprice-sensitive volume of consumption. In the third quadrant (III), there is a change in
consumer behavior driven by information technology characteristics (2) through (5). As
a result, the development of information technology cannot be evaluated with theeconomic perceptions that assume consumer behavior as described in characteristic (1).
4. IT and its effects on society: the problem of anonymity
In the real world, the consumer can make expert decisions in 2 or 3 fields, and asa follower, the consumer can make decisions in approximately 10 fields, and thus therole of distribution is to know the consumer-desired “time and place” and provide theappropriate selection of products. In its most basic meaning, distribution will not
disappear, but the spread of information technology will most likely have a great impact
on it.
When that happens, consumers will rely more on the opinions of others in place ofbeing able to experience the actual product, and the issue will be how to tie into theevaluations and other information formed on the Internet. The problem is how toproperly make evaluations of specialized information. A great deal of information
became available on websites when Internet began to take root in Japan in 1995, and the
public view of the Internet was optimistic for a while. As statements from many people
collected on the web, the discussion would become be more free, egalitarian, andrefined, which would create “citizens” that could resolve problems of great public
significance. It was also believed that objective evaluations of specialist information
would accumulate.

12However these expectations were fulfilled only in the early days of the Internet,
when it was supported by people skilled in navigating the loosely managed information
space of computer communications. Then, when the great masses who were notinitiated into the culture of PC-communications joined in, things took a turn for theworse. Anonymous, irresponsible statements began to circulate because emotionallycharged and abusive people were circulating them in great numbers. The dark side of
the Internet was growing. The validity of any evaluation of information was notguaranteed. The almost complete anonymity afforded by the Internet allowed
irresponsible information, self-aggrandizement, and denigration of others to run
rampant.
Large retail sites (like the Nihon Keizai Shimbun’s “bk1”) allowed independent
book reviews and responses from readers to be posted to the site. They accepted
contributions of book reviews, but even there, the anonymity created ethical problems.
Underlying this problem is that the level of education in ethics was comparatively
slower than the spread of the Internet and was not able to cope with the responsibility ofanonymity. In addition, there is a problem with copyrights of the reviews given tonewspapers and magazines (including academic and scientific magazines). If the
copyright on reviews written by famous names is negated and the reviews become
entirely available on the publisher’s retail site because the review carries a certain
public value, a different type of review may emerge in place of reviews with hidden
agendas. However, the essential ingredient for such reviews does not exist, and so
there is no stopping the slide of morals.
Thus, there will most likely not be one, simple deletion through the spread of
information technology, as is commonly believed, and on the contrary, there seems no
promise of establishing standards for evaluation of specialized information, as a resultof anonymity. Information technology will reinforce some functions of distribution,
while inducing an unstable restructuring of the whole.

13Notes:1. Masanori Moritani IT Kakumei no Kyomou, Bunshun Shinsho, q.v. Mr. Moritani said that
another effect on society would be the opening of channels to public activity because the Internet
would give individuals and small groups the ability to collect information and distributestatements.
2. The percentage of online orders for books is low in Japan. The industry’s largest dealer,
Kinokuniya, has not received more than 5% of sales from online orders. Shinichi Sano Dare ga
Hon wo Koroshita no ka, Nikkei BP, 2001.
3. First-hand information is scarce in the guidebooks published by large travel agencies, and it iswell known among those in the business that much of the information is borrowed frominformation submitted to other guidebooks.
4. More generally speaking, this advance is being facilitated by the development of personal
media.

This is the result of the disintegration of the purpose of personal media. Tatsuo Inamasu,

Pandora no Media, Chikuma Shobo, 2003.
5. The instruction to “shed the experience of past successes,” and “deal with the situation.” Hit
Shouhin wo Tsukure—Kyodai Konbini no Senryaku., “NHK Close-up Gendai,” broadcast: 7
October 2003.
6. This term was coined by Toshifumi Suzuki, president of Seven-Eleven Japan. Ryuichiro
Matsubara, Shohi shihonshugi no Yukue, Chikuma Shinsho, 2000, q.v.
7. From his experience on the sales floor, Toshifumi Suzuki claims that sales of some products
have taken off just by changing their location in the store. Toshifumi Suzuki, Ryuichiro
Matsubara; “Interview,” IY Group Quarterly Report, Spring 2001
8. Hiroshi Akuto, Uresuji no Housoku, Chikuma Shinsho, 1999.

14

● Distribution from the perspective of the media and the market (Japan)

Mass media
・ merchandise

Area in which China is dominant・era of bulk production/

・convenience storesbulk consumption

from 1975 through the 1990s・supermarkets

until 1975

Buyer’s market

Supplier’s market
Japanese society in the 1950s・word-of-mouth dissemination

the 1990s

Is word-of-mouth information
dissemination still preferred?

Personal media

Area that Japan should develop

15