The Japanese Wireless Telecommunications Industry : Kenji Erik Kushida innovation , organizational structures ,

Wireless telecommunications are revolutionizing communication. People can communicate with one another from anywhere, and vast information resources are becoming increasingly accessible anytime, anywhere. As wireless telecommunications technology improves, the future holds countless possibilities and opportunities to enhance people’s lives and methods of work. Japan’s wireless telecommunications industry has recently become the focus of international attention in discussions about cellular telephone industries and wireless telecommunications. Most such discussions and analyses of Japan’s wireless telecommunications industry tend to focus on three major points, and the objective of our study is to explain these points. First, Japan’s cellular internet connection services enjoy a market size, profitability, and diversity and sophistication of content yet to be seen anywhere else in the world. Second, the technological sophistication of handsets currently only available in Japan surpasses handsets in all other wireless telecommunications markets. Third, NTT Docomo, the dominant cellular telecommunications company in Japan, has enjoyed wild domestic success and profits. These three points become relevant to almost all studies of wireless telecommunications due to the following reason: Japan has had a closed, self-contained domestic industry until now, but with the imminent global adoption of a next-generation global telecommunications standard, the Japanese service providers and handset manufacturers are poising themselves to enter global wireless telecommunications markets. This is likely to change global competitive landscapes significantly, and there is widespread speculation about how wireless telecommunications markets will change in the future. The widespread attention given to Japan’s wireless telecommunications industry is significant both in studying the Japanese economy and in examining global wireless telecommunications. First, it is surprising for a Japanese industry to pioneer new technology, such as cellular internet connection services. Most previous examples of Japanese industries that became internationally successful owed their competitiveness to technological prominence in improving the manufacturing of products along existing designs – process innovation – rather than through innovation in content. In other words, we now see Japan taking a different type of technological leadership. Second, in examining global wireless telecom-