Networking's potential impact on local daily life Expansion of the information network Networking's potential impact on local daily life Japanese will have access to public service 24 hours a day. The flow of information never stops. It can be accessed and downloaded at any time of the day. For this reason, some foresee radical social changes, for example, in the way government agencies face the public.
Japanese citizens have the greatest and most direct contact with local governments.
For almost every facet of their lives, citizens must at some time or another go to the local government to do such things as registering births and deaths and marriages and divorces or paying local taxes and health insurance premiums, or applying for various permits, such as building permits. With improvements in the speed, capacity and flexibility in hardware to access and download information, some Japanese foresee local government offices 'staying open for business' through the Internet. Citizens can make application for a document or a permit, or can register an important event in their lives such as marriage on their computer at home. A few Japanese foresee computers installed at convenience stores for those citizens who do not have computers of their own.