The world's second largest telecommunications market is undergoing a rapid and radical transformation as deregulation, the Internet and mobile phones alter the way that Japanese people work and communicate.
A series of tieups, mergers and acquisitions over the last few years, some involving foreign capital, has forced Japan's top telecom executives to review their corporate strategies.
In July, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., the former state monopoly that still dominates the sector, was split into two regional carriers and a long-distance/international carrier under the umbrella of a holding company.