Knowing how students and teachers are using technology in the classroom in the US is important knowledge for any advanced country. In some ways Japan is far ahead of the US. In infrastructure like fiber optic web connections, and price of Internet connections. The number of blog posts is higher here in Japan than the US.
But other areas Japan is behind. Primarily in the use of technology. It is not very intensive, and most people experience technology through their cell phones. Computer use in class is still very rudimentary, so we can learn a lot through these statistics. Note especially how the student are more tech-savvy than their teachers.