ESOPExchange Students from Overseas Program

This course gives an introduction to Japan's Internet development and deals with its recent trends in network-enabled society ("ネット社会").

This course will focus on the evolution of network communications in Japan over the last few decades. A historical overview will be given on the development of the Internet. Japan's own deployment of global communication networks will then be characterized in terms of technology, standardization, business competition, governmental initiative and deregulation. Also the current status of broadband Internet will be discussed in terms of end-user experiences by taking examples from the following online services:
1) games and streaming multimedia, 2) wireless broadband, 3) ubiquitous computing, 4) net auctions and shopping, 5) weblogs, and social networking services.
Lastly a few sociological and demographic issues will be discussed pertaining to the recent emergence of what is called the "net community".

To acquire a historical overview of Japan's development of "Internet"
To acquire knowledge on the current status of ICT environment of Japan
To become able to relate local experiences and observations to those acquired in home country in view of today's Internet

英語 / English

Classes are composed of a series of lectures and thematic discussions every week. The former chronologically covers significant events in the development of Internet in Japan. The latter deals with several subjects of today in order to help students better understand contemporary issues. Questions and comments submitted online and/or in the form of reaction paper will be answered or responded at the beginning of the following week unless notified otherwise.

In addition, group work activities will be given 3 times during the semester, where groups of 6~8 students collaborate on quick online research on different assigned topics chosen from contemporary issues such as prepaid SIM, online games, subscription services, IoT (Internet of Things), 5G, deep learning, etc. The outcome of such group work would be a brief in-class presentation. Critique will be provided for group activities based on the quality of presentation.

Finally term paper (A4 or 8.5x11, 5 pages) will be assigned at the end of the semester, of which subject must be individually proposed towards the last month of the course and chosen from topics covered in the class or within the related areas of Internet and Japan.

あり / Yes

なし / No

授業形態/methods of teaching：対面/face to face

※各回の授業形態は予定です。教員の指示に従ってください。

Week 1[対面/face to face]：Course Introduction and Overview

Lecture: Course outline and introduction. Concept and historical overview of "internetworking"

Discussion: Getting a mobile phone?

Week 2[対面/face to face]：Early Years: N1 Network and S&T

Lecture: Early research effort and development in connecting computers in wide-area and local area domains.

Discussion: Getting a mobile phone?

Week 3[対面/face to face]：Nationwide : JUNET

Lecture: Development of JUNET and its growth within academia.

Discussion: Getting a mobile phone?

Week 4[対面/face to face]：JUNET and Inet Club

Lecture: Service model and the role of telecom companies in domestic and overseas connections.

Discussion: LINE, Twitter, Facebook--What's your favorite social media?

Week 5[対面/face to face]：WIDE Project

Lecture: WIDE as large-scale project that has networked academia and industry of Japan.

Discussion: LINE, Twitter, Facebook--What's your favorite social media?

Week 6[対面/face to face]：World Wide Web and ISP Competitions

Lecture: Web traffic via dial-up access and the emergence of Internet service providers. Enactment of the Telecommunications Business Law.

Discussion: Dark side—Addiction, piracy, illegal downloading, cyber bullying, etc.
Group work 1:

Week 7[対面/face to face]：Commercial IX

Lecture: Growing demand for Internet traffic and the development of the commercial network hub and backbone.

Discussion: Dark side—Addiction, piracy, illegal downloading, cyber bullying, etc.

Week 8[対面/face to face]：Broadband Internet

Lecture: Field studies for xDSL and cable broadband services. Tardy development of broadband infrastructure.

Discussion: Dark side—Addiction, piracy, illegal downloading, cyber bullying, etc.

Week 9[対面/face to face]：Plans for“e-Japan"

Lecture: Government initiative, strategic plans, and a road map to revitalize the nation for the 21st century.

Discussion: E-commerce and net auctions—are you buying or selling?
Group work 2:

Week 10[対面/face to face]：Development of“e-Japan"

Lecture: Follow up strategies and acceleration plans and outcome.
Discussion: E-commerce and net auctions—are you buying or selling?
Group work 2: Presentation

Week 11[対面/face to face]：Web2.0 and the Emergence of“Net Community”

Lecture: End-user aspect of broadband Internet. Dealing with search engines, “blogsphere”, and content archives. Digital divide revisited and web shadow.

Discussion: From past to present--Writing up a time line of events!

Week 12[対面/face to face]：Ubiquitous Network Communications: "u-Japan"

Lecture: Government strategic plans. Paradigm shift from “e-Japan” to ubiquitous society.

Discussion: From past to present--Writing up a time line of events!
Group work 3:

Week 13[対面/face to face]：Users in Ubiquitous World

Lecture: Current status and the possible future--Traceability of food product. E-wallet--Suica, FeliCa, PASMO. Mobile phones and WiFi. Social media.

Discussion: Proposals for the term paper.

Week 14[対面/face to face]：Final Discussion

Summary on what we learned. Q&A for the term paper

This course is given in English. No advanced skills in Japanese language are required. However, students may be interested in getting additional information by searching for Japanese articles. Students, who may need occasional help in Japanese language, are encouraged to take advantage of web-based translation services such as Google as your self-help tool. They are not perfect but often useful.

Students are encouraged to make a good use of Hosei's course management system and additional web-based tools to share findings and exchange ideas as part of their individual learning activities as well as to gain efficiency while working on assignments. No prior knowledge is required for getting started.

The average study time outside of class per week would be roughly 4 hours.

Reading materials will be made available on-line.

Reading materials will be made available on-line.

For ICT policy making of Japan, look for English pages of Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications:

http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_sosiki/joho_tsusin/eng/index.html

To retrieve English translations of Japanese laws, use the following service by Japanese government:

http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/?re=02

Many useful articles and figures are available from archived "Internet White Paper" since 1996 till 2022, although you need to grab Japanese text and get help from crude translation services such as Google:

http://iwparchives.jp/

Class participation with reaction paper: 20%
Review quiz: 20%
Homework: 30%
Term paper: 30%

Submitted term paper will be evaluated based upon its 1) format, 2) logical development, 3) relevance, 4) quality of references and 5) originality. By "relevance" your work should be an attempt to somehow characterize contemporary Japan with focused analysis on The Internet and network communications.

I suggest students take enough time to enable themselves to sign on the campus network and find the "Hoppii" student portal before attending the class.

I have revised the schedule and made clear that lecture subjects and group work themes are on separate horizons for better classroom management. Please note that our group work themes are easy enough requiring no prior knowledge of subjects covered in the class. However, please don't miss out the possible learning outcome of what seemingly easy everyday topics could bring out. You learn a lot through group activities by exchanging and sharing your ideas and experience with your class mates, which turned out effective in the past years.

I would also emphasize the value of reading assignment suggested in the class to better prepared for group activities.

You don't have to be technology-savvy, but we use Internet a lot in the classroom as well as at home.
Each enrolled student should bring his/her own laptop PC(*) or tablet with WiFi connectivity for individual classroom use. Smart phones are not allowed as a classroom tool due to their limited functionality. The instructor would ask you to shut down smart phones to avoid WiFi gets tied up with non-classroom use.
We will make use of various on-line resources, some of which are only available for and limited to campus use. So please make sure that you have access to Hosei campus network with your student ID before attending the first week class.

(*)Windows laptop PCs are available at the Hosei University Ichigaya Computing and Networking Center for on-campus use.

We will use the "Hoppii" student portal for academic communication. The instructor will additionally provide a web-based e-Portfolio tool for individual workplace.

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