The government will form a panel to help come up with a common standard for home information appliances created by consumer electronics makers and telecommunications companies.
The Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry panel, to be launched Friday, will include representatives of leading electronics manufacturers and telecom companies, including Sony Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and KDDI Corp.
The ministry hopes to present the panel's findings to a meeting of the International Telecommunication Union around June, officials said.
The move apparently reflects Japan's hope to get a head start on establishing globally accepted unified standards for home information appliances.
Manufactures have agreed to unify the varying standards for equipment and office systems for home information appliances by 2007.
Six groups of manufactures, including Sony, Matsushita and Hitachi Ltd., are separately developing communications formulas covering data formats, preventing consumers from connecting to appliances made by different group of manufacturers.