ment. However, if seen from the other side, such uneven sector-by-sector information-investment is a proof of growth capacity in service innovation/productivity-improvement, but it is dependent on future investment. The international comparison also shows that Japan's informatization-index is the lowest among the surveyed countries; it is another proof of growth capacity which could be capitalized by ICT investment promotion.

Various macro/semi-macro analysis and micro-analysis based on the poll-survey to businesses has proved the growth-driving power of ICT investment. It is clear that the ICT investment is the key, and now is the time for action.

The situation is the same also in the public sectors, particularly in “Administration,” “Medical Service,” and “Education” which have long been chosen as key -fields. The nation’s evaluation or recognition of the ICT utilization in those fields is not particularly high; even for the services of tax submission/payment which have been used relatively frequently, its necessity is not so highly recognized. The purpose of ICT utilization in public sectors is not only the improvement of convenience of each individual service, but synergetic effects such as efficient provision of services or the realization of social fairness. The meaning of ICT utilization in public sectors should be recognized by every nation from a standpoint covering all aspects of ICT utilization.

### 4. The spread of smartphones and the growth of mobile industries

While the emergence of the smartphone is changing the mobile industries, the “Smartphone economy” is expected to widely expand to the other sectors through stimulating the demand of the services on the Internet or accelerating the ICT use by seniors, such as a net-supermarket. Smartphones, which are widely expanding, should actively be used for not only the growth of the mobile industries but for the growth of Japan as a whole.

On the other hand, the spread of smartphones has stimulated “competitions among eco-systems,” particularly in mobile-Internet field; ICT-industry players including mobile-communication operators, through the rapid integration beyond the layer barriers or beyond the business field barriers, involving a wide variety of business sectors, are competing to enhance the added value of their services. The key to the success of such strategies is the platform strategy; platforms are the cores of “eco-systems.” Therefore, attention should be paid to the global deployment of made-in-Japan platforms.

On the other hand, taking lessons from the “Galapagos” phones that once led the world but failed to go out of the domestic market, paying attention to the shift from the smartphone or tablet terminal to the fourth-coming smart TV, Japan should actively participate in the international standardization activities of open platforms, of which HTML 5 is a representative example, that will work as a foundation of higher-layer or terminal-layer services.

Therefore, the activities based on an involvement of the government and businesses will become critical.

### 5. Realization of ICT Potentiality through the "Smart Revolution"

The “Smart Revolution” realized by the completion of ubiquitous networks combined with the utilization of the Big Data has the potential to of dramatically improving ICT’s growth-induction power and problem-resolution power. On the other hand, ICT will contribute to the progress of the broadcasting media in the era after the shift-to-digital-broadcasting. In those circumstances where the nation’s recognition of broadcasting media is going to be diversified, not only the will the multi-use of broadcast programs through the Internet contribute to the growth of the media, but the utilization by broadcasting media of the Internet and social media that have high-growth capability which has been proven by the rapidly-growing Internet advertising, will contribute to the enhancement of the "connection" with the viewers", improvement of media value through the utilization of data, and the resolution of other issues such as radio-poor-reception-areas.

As a final remark, the Internet, which has become a social infrastructure, not only has made clear the necessity of international regulation of cyberspace, but has exposed a variety of challenges such as the cyber-attack damages for which the severity has worsened and the protection measures of personal information. It is needless to say that the growth potential of ICT is based on the assumption that these challenges will be properly resolved.