Telecommunication and the Japanese Empire: A Preliminary Analysis of Telegraphic Traffic

Telekommunikation und das japanische Kaiserreich: Eine vorl?u fige Analyse des telegraphischen Verkehrs?. The study of information flow has been under-developed in telecommunications history in part due to the paucity of traffic data. Interestingly Imperial Japan has left a remarkably large collec tion of telecommunication traffic data, perhaps unmatched by other imperial powers. Given the enormous importance Japan placed on its telecommunica tions network at home and in East Asia, it is only appropriate to ask how it was used and what kind of information went through it. As a preliminary analysis of the traffic data in the Japanese empire over its fifty-year history, my paper examines the content, volume, and direction of information flows as well as the underlying economic, political, and technological factors. Such an analysis can