Multimedia and the crisis economy in Japan

Abstract

This article examines recent developments in the communication sector in Japan in the light of the recent economic meltdown of the former miracle economies of South East Asai. It argues that the telecommunications, computer and electronics industries are undergoing a restructuring of their activities under the state-endorsed banner of `multimedia' which, we suggest, is an extension of earlier rhetorical strategies concerned with the promotion of an `information society' in Japan. We look in particular at Sony Corporation's activities as it seeks new points of convergence between its computing, telecommunications and entertainment software interests in an increasingly deregulated national and global communications environment. Our investigation of the current relationship between the Japanese state and corporate interests like Sony leads us to take issue with those sociologists and media theorists who would have us believe that the phenomenon of `informationalization' is best understood as the appearance of post-industrial economy and polity based on `collective reflexivity'. We argue instead that multimediatization represents a drive by Japanese capital to restore conditions of profitable accumulation, a phenomenon which is increasingly drawing the other countries of South East Asia into Japan's `circuits of capital'.