I plan to study the governments' role in Internet development, because I believe the Internet will profoundly shape Japan and United States over the next decade. I will examine government actions in four critical areas: buildout of the Internet backbone and infrastructure; insuring adequate numbers of Internet technicians and entrepreneurs; facilitating funding opportunities and managerial expertise for would-be Internet enterprises; and business-to-business (B2B) Internet commerce. I expect to find that the U.S. government has played a far more instrumental role than most imagine, and that the Japanese government, while wanting to catch up with the U.S., may quickly face hard policy choices. How it handles those choices may suggest how it will deal with calls for broader economic restructuring. I intend to carry out my research mainly through interviews in the Japan and the United States. My goal is to write an article for a prominent journal in Japan and the United States and, if possible, a book.