Japanese television broadcast regulation in transition: From analog to digital broadcasting, 1987-1997

The study reviews Japanese television broadcast regulation between 1987 and 1997 and is one of the first research attempts to analyze the Japanese broadcast policy-making process and its patterns.;The research focuses on decisions related to the transition from analog to digital broadcasting. The main themes pursued are: roles played by such political actors as bureaucrats, politicians and broadcasters in the decision to shift the broadcast standard to digital; changes which occurred in the domestic political environment in Japan between 1987 and 1997 to support this decision; events both within Japan and internationally that may have created a climate which made such a decision possible; and clues as to the state-centric or society-centric approaches which might explain the change in policy requiring a shift from analog to digital standards.;This dissertation contains six chapters. Chapter I is an introductory chapter which gives an overview of broadcast regulation and introduces the context and concept of this research. Chapter II reviews the related literature, starting from a historical overview of the origins and development of broadcasting research in Japan, then focusing on a review of broadcast policy research. Chapter II also examines the several theoretical ways of analyzing Japanese broadcast policy. Chapter III covers the historical context which led up to the debate over an analog versus digital standard. Chapter IV describes the research method and data collection technique. Chapter V discusses the interview data collected during field research in Tokyo.;In the concluding Chapter VI, the researcher summarizes the results of the data arguing that the case of a change from an analog to a digital standard between 1987 and 1997 in Japan is something of an exception due to the fact that the MPT bureaucrats in this case assumed responsibility for making a major policy change with very little consultation with either politicians or market players. The research shows, however, that the days of the elite bureaucrat and the unchecked bureaucracy are over. This is due to technological advancements and societal changes.