Rapid technological changes ring in new developments in the handheld communications market all the time. But now people can become what's being called a "mobile phone sommelier" to cater to the increasingly complicated field, according to Sunday Mainichi (2/10).

For the uninitiated, sommeliers are wine specialists who explain and recommend wines to restaurant customers. But now, "experts" are popping up in all sorts of different fields across Japan, mainly because of the growing number of places offering formal qualifications.

It's now possible to become a fully qualified vegetable advisor, or a sanctioned expert in things like professional wrestling, MTV, horse racing, anime, and even snow crabs from the Echizen (Ishikawa and Fukui prefectures) region.

It's little wonder, then, that the convoluted mobile phone market, with its estimated 100 million-plus users in Japan, has attracted the attention of those offering to make people "official" experts in the field. And the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is hoping that its plans to create "mobile phone sommeliers" will make it easier for average Japanese to maneuver their way through the market.

"Mobile phone payment plans are extraordinarily complicated and difficult to understand," a ministry spokesman tells Sunday Mainichi. "There are loads of problems when consumers try to end their contracts with carriers before they've expired, and we hope the mobile phone sommeliers will prevent or ease these problems."

Actual testing of potential mobile phone experts will be placed in the hands of a private company running the exams with the authorization of the ministry. Officials expect the first "mobile phone sommelier" exam could be held as early as this summer. Subjects will be tested for their knowledge of such matters as mobile phone models, the types of services carriers offer, how consumers can avoid getting caught up by exorbitant payment plans and what to do to stop theft or spam.

But, while it would appear on the surface as though government qualifications in mobile phone proficiency would offer people a step ahead in the communications sector, that's not likely to be the case.

"We train all our sales staff ourselves," a spokesman for NTT DoCoMo, one of Japan's leading mobile phone carriers, tells Sunday Mainichi. "We're still trying to work out exactly who the test is supposed to be targeting."

In other words, the qualification is a solution without a problem, and judging by the private sector's reaction, has little practical value other than self-satisfaction.

Why the fascination for getting formal qualifications, then? Kazuki Nakamura, the president of Quick Education Systems and author of a book on the proliferation of places offering to provide credentials in all sorts of areas, explains.

"Japanese society is obsessed with titles and there is a need for people to have an impressive title on their business card," Nakamura tells Sunday Mainichi. "The more people who want to get qualifications, the more companies can charge to test them, which means the more tests that come out. The certification business has become a thriving market in itself." (By Ryann Connell)