ICTs and sustainability: The managerial and environmental impact in Japan

There are manifold causal linkages between information and communications technologies (ICTs) and social sustainability. In this article, these linkages are classified into three areas: direct improvement of corporate productivity, changed behaviour of people/organizations, and improved decision-making capabilities within society. A framework is proposed to analyse the first two of these three linkages, together with the results of a questionnaire survey. These point to a continuous growth trend in Japanese ICT investment with sectoral variations, and statistically significant evidence of ICTs' contributions to corporate operations and environmental issues.