The first chapter of this overview of communications development and its use for instructional purposes in Japan reviews the history of mass communications in Japan, i.e., newspapers, movies, radio, and television, and notes the advent of new media. The second chapter describes the use of movies and radio in both social and formal classroom education, and discusses the influence of broadcast television on the intellectual and emotional development of children and the appearance of lifelong learning via television. Survey results are cited to provide information on the amount of time both children and adults spend viewing television, their attitudes toward the medium, the effects of television viewing on children's reading habits, the use of television programs in schools, and trends in television use for social education. The current situation of computer education in Japan is described in the final chapter, which details government policies and specific measures designed to bring the computer and broadcasting into various levels of formal education. Brief descriptions are provided of programs in elementary and secondary schools and in universities, as well as the use of computers to access information for research. Descriptions of the objectives and activities of two organizations which study the development of education and communication--the Centre for Educational Technology and the National Institute of Multi-Media Education (HKC)--conclude the chapter. Both a list of 19 references and a nine-item annotated bibliography are provided. (MES)