Japan's MPT policy includes encouraging views on remote work and decentralization. (Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications)

The slow but continued progress in promoting telecommuting and remote work in Japan that has been developing in the last five years will apparently get a boost from a policy statement issued by Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT). The Winter 1994 issue of New Breeze, a digest of telecommunications-related policy and product developments in Japan, carried a translation of the "Fundamental Principles of Information and Communications Policy for Fiscal Year 1994," a document prepared by MPT. Here are some of the highlights, including an interesting surprise at the end:

1. Balanced development of Japan through correction of the concentration of information:

"The concentration of information in the Tokyo metropolitan area has given rise to problems such as depopulation, differences in living standards, and the weakening of industries in local areas, as well as a housing crisis and environmental problem in the Tokyo metropolitan area. However, with the …