CAN JAPAN SUCCEED IN CHIGYO-KA (INTELPRISE-FORMATION)

There are two aspects in today's information revolution that started i n the late 1970s. The first is an aspect referred to as ''the third in dustrial revolution,'' which triggers the transition to the ''21st cen tury system of Industrialization.'' The information revolution in this sense brings the creation of new ''breakthrough industries (new multi media industries).'' And the second aspect of the information revoluti on possesses the characteristics of both a technological revolution an d a social revolution and brings about the arrival of the third phase of the historical evolutionary process of the modern civilization, whi ch proceeds through three phases, namely ''militarization, industriali zation, and then informatization.'' If the bearers of modern industria lization are a ''group of enterprises'' that have been engaged in the race in order to gain ''wealth'' (generalized means of exchange/exploi tation power), and if these enterprises' activities have been exercise d in the world market where their products have been sold, then it is appropriate to call the bearers of informatization a ''group of intelp rises.'' They will be engaged in the race to gain ''wisdom'' (generali zed means of persuasion/induction power), then stages of their activit ies can be called a ''global intelplace'' where ''sharables,'' that is , information and knowledge, will be disseminated. And now, toward the 21st century, the third phase of modernization, which can be called t he ''informatization/intelprise formation'' or the ''wisdom game'' (in tellectualism), is about to begin. Japan's ''ie society (a society bas ed on the ie principle-literally, it means ''house'' but here it is in terpreted as cultural principle for organizing a society), which has b een going through the process of evolution on the Japan Archipelago, h as developed a network-based organization with little stratification w ithin its infrastructure. In this sense, Japanese society can be chara cterized as a ''network-oriented society'' in which intelprises and an intelplace in the broad sense have functioned as the essential compon ents of the society since Middle Ages. In general, an intelplace and i ntelprises that operate actively within this framework serve as the fl exible bases for different types of social relations and institutions, such as states and markets and eventually integrate these into the so ciety to a certain extent. In fact, it took place quite regularly duri ng the modernization ''in the narrow sense,'' or Westernization of Jap anese society after the Meiji Restoration. There exist some problems, however. Some of the characteristics found in Japanese society may bec ome obstacles to activities aimed at the sharing and promotion of info rmation and knowledge in the global intelplace and Japanese participat ion in the ''wisdom game.'' Badly needed are serious efforts for Japan ese intelprise-formation to reduce these obstacles as much as possible .