R&D Target for Post-Digital TV System

There is no greater joy for researchers than achieving clear goals for their R&D. For example, the introduction of satellite broadcasting in the 90s followed by a steady changeover from analog to digital television was a joyous experience for myself. However, we are now facing the challenge of setting a R&D target for the post-digital TV era that will begin with the completion of digital TV broadcasting networks and broadband communications networks.

About a decade has passed since I joined NHK's Broadcasting Technology Research Committee, and I can more than appreciate the present committee's struggle to decide on the post-2010 broadcasting R&D agenda. This is an especially difficult task as the concern in recent years has been that the investment efficiency for R&D is declining. In addition to HDTV receivers and personal computers (as well as cellular phones), what will be needed after 2010? In our search for an answer, we have been busy envisioning the conditions for systems such as information appliances and home servers, as well as establishing definitions for these devices, yet no consensus seems to be in view.

The other day, while watching the NHK Special, "What We Can Learn from the Meiji Era," I had an experience like scales falling from my eyes. In the program, the economist Peter Drucker pointed out that one of the driving forces behind the successful revolution in the Meiji era in Japan was the far-sightedness of the politicians, economists, and scientists of the time in acquiring a knowledge of societal systems and revolutionary technologies from the West. His analysis was that their translating of terminology from a foreign language into its Japanese equivalent, as the new systems and technologies were being introduced, worked to accelerate the spread of revolutionary knowledge among Japan's citizens who were then able to develop their country at an amazing pace.

In contrast to the example of the Meiji era in Japan, we see that some developing countries today are having difficulty with revolutionary technologies. In such a country, the dissemination of a revolutionary technology cannot be done in the mother tongue of its people, leaving the opportunity completely dependant on a limited number of elites who have been schooled abroad. When I was young, I and other NHK broadcasting engineers and architectural engineers participated in an international assistance program sponsored by the Japanese government for the introduction of color television in Afghanistan. During my involvement throughout the project, from planning the broadcasting station, to its construction and the training of its personnel, I personally experienced the difficulty of transferring technology to a developing country. I have come to believe that like the case of technology transfer to a developing country, the targets for post-digital R&D in the 21st century will not be established entirely on the lead of an expert group, but also through the mobilization of ordinary people. A PC culture filled with foreign words written in Katakana is not well suited for Japanese seeking their own culture in the future. By increasing the opportunities to see the open house of our research institution and broadcasting station, together with taking the initiative in hands-on classes and digital culture studies via broadcasting, we will be taking a long-term approach in an atmosphere that makes the digital environment more friendly. It is my hope that we can help people in Japan understand and appreciate the meaning of digital broadcasting from the viewpoint of promoting Japanese culture.