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ABSTRACT
Conceptual background of internationalization of information technology (I18N) is discussed in view of cultural, economic, and technological points. Activity of the AFSIT-SIG on Internationalization with the collaboration of experts from Asian countries, results of its Element Survey are reported. Liaison on internationalization activities among information communities in Asia is recommended. The next steps of the activities such as Variation Survey and possible Requirement Survey on application platform, are intro-duced to suggest its regional implications.

ABSTRACT
National information policy might be defined as government-directed policy for coordinated action on all matters relating to information. A comprehensive information policy may be defined as plan for the development of information resources and their optimal utilization. However, this definition can hardly ever be translated into reality. In the strict sense it has no coherent body of policy relating to information collection, storage, provision and supply. No country can point to a "comprehensive". national information policy, only to a set of fragmented policies, each dealing with a different aspect of information handling. Considering the matter of national information policy is largely a matter of reviewing the purpose, role and activities of a number of bodies set up by government and having responsibilities to government for information matters. Other organizations have also been involved, acting as advisory and pressure groups on information matters. This study reviews the various initiatives, organizations, legislations, events, etc, dealing with national information policy in the UK, USA, Korea and Japan.

RESUME La notion de "patrimoine informationnel" n'est pas nouvelle. Ainsi aux Etats-Unis, en 1997, une commission du Federal Paperwork concluait que "le gouvernement americain avait jusqu'a maintenant considere l'information comme un bien relativement gratuit et illimite, comme l'air et lesoleil". A l'issue de ses travaux, cette commission parvenait a la conclusion selon laquelle l��information est une ressource nationale pouvant et devant faire l'objet d'une valorisation, une ressource non moins essentielle a la survie du gouvernement, de l'industrie et des citoyens, que les ressources humaines, materielles et naturelles : "l'information est une ressource, qui a besoin d'etre conservee, recyclee, protegee". (KOTLER, 1991). Le caractere patrimonial de l'information a donc deja ete evoque, mais il n'a pas encore fait, a notre connaissance, l'objet d'un approfondissement theorique, ou d'une tentative de "modelisation". Nous esperons apporter modestement ici des premiers elements allant dans ce sens.

ABSTRACT
After a critical analysis of the two dominant paradigms of economics of information, namely the market and the public good paradigms, we propose to make a presentation of a new conceptual framework : the patrimonial management of information. This framework is inherited of the economics of environmental and monumental resources. As a two dimensions patrimony composed of information-basis and information services, information requires a specific management which should try to encourage decisions preserving the "information environment" and its adaptation to present and future needs. It should also deal with the different forms of degradation of each components of the information patrimony and try to develop a patrimonial awareness of information.

ABSTRACT
The Fifth Japan-U.S. Conference on Libraries and Information Science in Higher Education was held in Japan in two different versions, one in Tokyo and the other one in Kyoto. The paper tried to assess the Fifth Conference by paying attentions solely to its search for mutuality or reciprocity between the libraries of these two countries as the major concern.��Three issues, closely related with the concern, i.e. unbalanced collection developments of��research materials for American studies and those for Japanese studies,irrelevant��matching in a new relationship between researchers and librarians, and advantages and disadvantages of the Conference for advancement of reciprocity are picked up and investigated in three aspects, namely, issue itself treated in the Fifth Conference, following up and additional information, and comments and discussions of the present author. It is made clear that reciprocity or mutuality between university libraries of the two countries, though full of turns and twists, has been, patently and latently, one of the key issues in the Conferences.

ABSTRACT
Describing medical data or knowledge, natural language representation plays quite important roles. In machine processing of information described in natural language, concept dictionaries that describe meaning and relationship of various terms are very important. Because most of medical terms, like terms in other specialized fields, can be regarded as composite terms, compiling a medical concept dictionary, it seems effective to prepare elementary terms and composing rules. In this paper, the authors, from the viewpoint of elementary terms and composing rules, discuss about inferring conceptual category of medical terms in a large scale dictionary. Discussions in this paper will concentrate to terms that represents various site, organ or tissues in human bodies.

ABSTRACT
In this paper the authors discuss data structures and algorithms in relational model, which are suitable for main memory database (MMDB). A relational database is constructed on MMDB, and the authors propose a new data structure using pointers called ��connections��.The connections arethe way which connects some join group of relations and can then extremely reduce the cost of join processing. A performance analysis is undertaken by empirical evaluation on MMDB, and the results suggest that AVL-tree and B-tree are suitable for selection processing, and the connections work very well for join processing and general queries.

ABSTRACT
Oohashi et al. have experimentally shown that inaudible high-frequency components in music nevertheless constitute a contributory factor to the pleasure in listening. Based on their findings and on some certain facts from auditory physiology and brain science, we critically examine cognitive science-wise some aspects of sound qualities of audio equipment, including analog LP records and digital compact disks (CD), as a possible effect of the nonlinearity of ears. We then suggest some future research topics and mention some relevant issues, including ethnic and cultural heritage.

ABSTRACT
Besides aural languages such as speech and written languages derived from it, visual languages which appeal to images, although they are mostly in their prattle stages yet, are lately receiving increased attentions, owing to the vast technological progress made in computer graphics to accomodate them. From the human science point of view, we in this note compare these two forms languages and also attempt to see that visual languages, which include sign languages, may have a much more ancient origin than aural languages, and are possibly more natural to and easier means of communications by humans.

ABSTRACT
Japanese language does not have truly viable orthography even today, and
the guidelines for the writing system has already seen several major shifts within this century. The major problem stems from the way to cope with the plethora of Chinese characters and words originally adopted some 1500 years ago from Chinese, which is an altogether different language from Japanese.
This note is a discourse on how to organize the usage of Chinese characters so that the writing system will be able to maximize the sum total of the reading and writing ability of the population in the information oriented society of Japan.