Inter carrier SMS messages in Japan were not possible until recently (July 2011, or about ten years behind other countries). This had to do with some of the Jap

Inter carrier SMS messages in Japan were not possible until recently (July 2011, or about ten years behind other countries). This had to do with some of the Japanese carriers adopting PDC as a 2G standard instead of something that was used more internationally (eg. CDMA). To allow customers to communicate via text with friends with other carriers, Japanese carriers adopted email on their phones and the Japanese customers became more familiar with email instead of SMS for text.