Nowadays people all over the world use cell-phone as invaluable tools for communication and other wireless services. While the United States is undoubtedly a leader in the wireless ¡Èrevolution.¡É I will demonstrate in this paper that Japanese people today use cell-phone even more than people in the United States. To do this, I will use two surveys – one I conducted, and another by the Nomura Research Institute of Japan. From these surveys, we gain interests into how cell-phones are used in Japan and the United States, and how cell-phone users feel about them.
The NRI (Nomura Research Institute) conducted an important survey of cell-phone use in its ¡ÈCyber Life Observations and 2nd Comparison in the World 2000.¡É In the survey, they report that ¡È69.8% of Japanese people use cell-phone, including 19.8% who use the Internet and e-mail on their cell-phone, while in the united states, 54.0% people use cell-phone daily, including 5.3% who use the Internet and e-mail on their cell-phone.¡É I tested these results in my survey, and asked 15 SU (Syracuse University) students and 20 Tokai University from Japan. In my survey, 100% of the Japanese students were using cell-phones, including 75.0% who sent e-mail by cell-phone. On the other side, only 66.7%(10/15) of the SU students I surveyed used cell-phones, and no one sent e-mail or search Internet on their cell-phones. These are interesting findings.
Japanese people and people in the United States have different views about using cell-phone. Their differences are interesting and offer insights into the people of both countries.
The most different view regarding cell-phones is that almost 80% of the Japanese people in my survey said, ¡ÉMy cell-phones is one of most important parts of my life. ¡É But people in the United States didn¡Çt think this way. The main reason why Japanese people think that cell-phones are so useful is that when they need immediate contact for emergencies, they can pick up the phone or call whenever they need to. People in Japan have become so dependent on cell-phone for making calls, they can¡Çt imagine life without it. I have this opinion, too. I feel uneasy when I forget my cell-phone in the house unable to be and cannot be reached by my friends. Also, because most japans high school students and university students including my friends have a cell-phone, we cannot leave home without it. That is also why we are afraid to miss phone calls from our friends and call-mates. In fact, today, we usually use cell-phone even though we are at home, for privacy from our parents. And some people living alone don¡Çt have a house-phone, which is very expensive in Japan, so they have only cell-phone to contact with their family and friends. Japanese people have become depend on cell-phone in lives.
In contrast, the reason why people in the United States don¡Çt think cell-phone use is vitally important part of their life is that they feel that the cell-phone is only a tool for brief communication. Before I gave this survey to SU students, I wondered if this might be the case because I didn¡Çt hear many Americans express their feelings about cell-phone. Although nowadays the number of people who have cell-phone in SU is increasing the amount of people who have cell-phone in still not comparable to that of Japanese university students. Also, they are living near each other, so they have contacted each other more easily than Japanese can. But some people in the United States also have only cell-phone without house-phone, like Japanese people living along. They told me it is because a cell-phone is cheaper than a house-phone in United States. But usually SU students have a house-phone even though they have cell-phone. So, sometimes they forget cell-phone in their house easily. The results, then, is this recognition for cell-phone¡Çs importance by people in the United States is very different from Japan.
Therefore, the United States and Japan have so different view for cell-phone. That is why of course we have different culture. But exactly cell-phone is one of good device for people, and it has unlimited possibility in the future for example we will be able to use cell-phone better for business, entertainment, or helpful for human life.
NTT DoCoMo leads the Japanese market in the development of mobile communications. Japan¡Çs largest telecommunication company, NTT DoCoMo was established in 1992 as a part of NTT (Nihon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation.) only 9 years, DoCoMo grow up the number one share in cell-phone industries. Exactly, 40.7% of cell-phone users are using cell-phone by DoCoMo. As a one of the reason, DoCoMo has two type cell-phones, a usual digital cell-phone and a new type cell-phone: ¡Èi-mode ¡É. Before February 11, 2001, 23% of cell-phone users use i-mode in Japan. In fact, ¡Èi-mode¡É is ¡ÈInternet-mode¡É, so the main idea in i-mode is to spread using the Internet on the cell-phones. Thus, we can use not only talking function but also entertainment function such as using the Internet, checking e-mail, color screen, building web site for i-mode, downloading music and playing game.
Many i-mode users think the best function on i-mode is checking e-mail anytime and everywhere. Actually it is an epochal idea on cell-phones in Japan, where mail function is popular. From my survey, the reason why people change their cell-phone type is that cell-phone users wanted to also get e-mail account and check e-mail on cell-phone. And even over 40 and 50 years old people, who think computer is complicated, can use i-mode easily to use the e-mail because it is simple hoe to use i-mode function. To chat on computer means using e-mail and some mail function on cell-phone in Japan. Japanese cell-phone users enjoy e-mail exchanging like people in the United States enjoy chat on their computer.
In addition, web site, which we can check from computer and i-mode, is increasing in Japan. It says users using the Internet on cell-phone are also increasing. Actually in my survey, because cell-phone screen is small, people usually use the Internet on computer. But hen i-mode users want to check some information outside their home, immediately, using the Internet by i-mode is so useful.
Moreover, we can enjoy downloading music and games, too on i-mode. For example, we can enjoy download music to cell-phone with using the Internet as receiving sound. And nowadays as receiving sounds, we can use 16 harmonies to listen music. It is good entertainment to get attention from teenagers, important cell-phone user age. Also, we can enjoy some games. ¡ÈPokemon¡É is good example. It is popular in kid¡Çs age, and it is enjoyed to battle and trade with another player. This function is like game boy. But we don¡Çt need to use connector because i-mode has the Internet function. Next game of ¡ÈPokemon¡É series will be sold with using i-mode.
Therefore, i-mode has a lot of entertainment function with using the Internet, and it is for all ages. DoCoMo developed these functions on i-mode, and all age users understood main ideas on i-mode. Because of these DoCoMo¡Çs development, DoCoMo got this position, number one share in the cell-phone industries in Japan.
Today¡Çs cell-phone will continue to grow up in both the United States and Japan because people¡Çs need of instant, resemble communication. Telephones have been an important part in our life since Bell created the telephone in 1876, and cell-phones are a modern extension of the revolution started by the telephone. Cell-phones are human necessity in our life style, vital to developing our future.