oriented media) is smaller than for other axes. As for the shape of the radar chart, the shape of TV and newspaper/magazine radar-chart looks like that of other video-site and social media.

A close look at radar charts for each generation group shows the following: in the generation group of 10s to 20s, as for the video-oriented medias and the text-oriented medias, similar to the results mentioned above, the difference between the group members is small; distinctly, as for the text-oriented medias, in the generation group of 10s to 20s, social medias are more highly evaluated than newspapers/magazines on the axes of “importance as an entertainment” and “news-value.”

For the comparison of media of which contents are provided by the press organizations, "TV," "Press/Video site," "Newspapers/Magazines," and "Text News site are selected and their evaluations are represented in radar charts. Those radar charts show the following: as for video-oriented medias, TV is evaluated much more highly than Press/Video site, and no generation difference in such inclination is seen except for the 10s to 20s group where the difference is smaller; on the other hand as for text-oriented medias, the evaluation-difference of the newspaper/magazines and the text-press site is very small, and the 10s to 20s group gives the equivalent level of evaluation to each axis except for the axis of "credibility", and such inclination is seen in other generation groups.

## Section 4

## Towards the Steps for the New Growth by ICT

In the previous sections, the relation of ICT to the economic growth has been described. The following articles are on the role of ICT for Japan's rebirth.

### 1. International trends in "growth by ICT" and the difficult situation of Japan

Every country around the world has come to share the recognition of ICT as a growth engine. Particularly, the swift growth of the Internet as a social infrastructure and the development of mobile communication networks (later than 2G to LTE) has become a critical path connecting ICT to the growth or the prosperity, in every country whether it is advanced or developing.

On the other hand, a close look at Japan’s position in ICT results in no other conclusion than “Japan stands still.” However, the essence of the various strategic ICT policies that have been promoted in countries worldwide and regions such as EU or ASEAN is the development of broadband wireless networks and the promotion of ICT utilization, which is not so much different from the ICT strategies that Japan has promoted. Japan still has advantages such as highly-profitable mobile industries, the large domestic market, and its sophisticated consumers, and at the same Japan still holds the advantages in mobile Internet or Internet services, which Japan has acquired through running as a front runner in their marketization. Therefore, it is desirable to abandon the notion that Japan is in the leading position around the world, and then strengthen the power to drive the activities in ICT to utilize such advantages for its growth.

### 2. Economic Growth Driving Force and International Expansion of ICT Industries

Japan’s ICT industries, as a whole, are driving the Japanese economy, judging from the size of their domestic production. In addition, a close look into the sectors shows that the ICT industries are going well; the software/service sector still performs well, and the platform businesses have earned record profits. However, the value of ICT industries as a big accumulator of foreign reserves has declined as they are losing export competitiveness; the ICT industries have become domestic-market-oriented.

A look at the low-middle income countries around the world shows the continuing growth in ICT-related markets resulted from the growth in communication-infrastructure investment, ICT system investment, and the growth in the number of terminals, accompanying their economic growth. In addition to the US or European ICT corporations, Chinese/Taiwanese/Korean corporations have been aggressively penetrating those markets. As for smartphones, their large production lot-size resulting from such global deployment is suspected to have caused Japanese manufacturers to fall behind of not only Apple but those Asian players in the global market and to face fierce competitions even in the domestic market. These factors suggest that Japanese ICT industries are required to enhance their management strategies covering the global market. Therefore, it would be an option for Japan to promote global deployment of ICT industries through the activities in which Japan's advantage are used in synergetic ways, such as the integration of hardware and software-services, or collaboration of ICT corporations with their clients.

### 3. Challenges for ICT User Sector Growth

As the informatization-index-analysis shows, in Japan, the sector-by-sector difference is large for ICT invest-