Japanese business leaders and Cabinet members agreed Wednesday to map out a national strategy by the end of the year to promote information technology, setting a goal of outrunning the United States as a "super-express IT power" in five years.
The decision was reached during the second joint meeting of the 20-member private-sector and academic panel on IT strategy and the government's 22-member IT strategy headquarters, held at the Prime Minister's Official Residence.
To increase Japan's IT competitiveness through deregulation to promote e-commerce and a buildup of information and communications infrastructure for Internet-oriented superhighway, the IT strategy panel -- an advisory body to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori -- decided to set up a committee to draft a national IT strategy within two months.