Kanji Characters in Japan-Remaining big challenges of e-Government

Abstract

The Japanese Government has set its sights on becoming number one in the world in ICT, by the IT strategy organization established in 2000. However, according to the United Nations e-Government Development Index, Japan's ranking has remained low despite its progress in information infrastructure. The reason for this is that the Japanese government did not integrate the code and standardize the data which are needed to use ICT across the whole country. The government passed the national ID bill last year, but the issue of kanji characters, i.e., how to define the Japanese kanji character set, remains unresolved because this issue, especially as it related to kanji characters of names. I think the current proposed solution by Japanese Government will not be successful and cause the different types of troubles. So, I insist that the kanji character issue should be viewed from the perspectives of publicness and human interface, and I propose a solution whereby the government should regulate by law the range of kanji characters used by ICT, rather than increasing the number of kanji character used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]