Japan should create one of the world's most advanced information technology infrastructures in the next five years so that far more than 60 percent of the public will have Internet access by then, a government advisory panel said Monday.
The following is the gist of a draft presented Monday by the IT Strategy Council, an advisory panel to the prime minister, at a joint meeting with the IT Strategy Headquarters, a government task force.
The draft calls for:
* making Japan the world's most advanced IT nation within five years to create a society driven by "intellectual creativity";
* promoting Internet use so that more than 60 percent of the public will have Internet access by 2005;
* building advanced communications networks within five years, in which at least 30 million households will have constant access to high-speed Internet lines, while at least 10 million households will have constant access to ultra high-speed lines;
* fostering e-commerce firms so that online transactions expand 10-fold from their 1998 level by 2003;
* and promoting an "electronic government" by conducting more public administration business online and disclosing more public information online.