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While we in the West tend to think of Japan as futuristic in a lot of ways they are still stuck in the 90s: They still commonly use fax machines http://www.nyt

While we in the West tend to think of Japan as futuristic in a lot of ways they are still stuck in the 90s: They still commonly use fax machines http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/world/asia/in-japan-the-fax-machine-is-anything-but-a-relic.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/world/asia/in-japan-the-fa... And at least when I was there in 2007 they were still very cash-based and many atms would be inaccessible after midnight (except in 7-11 stores?)

digi_owl 12y ago
I seem to recall that various US agencies still require fax, because it is an approved legal document. I suspect something similar is in effect in Japan. Heck, South Korea is pretty much stuck on IE because they produced a national e-commerce solution based on ActiveX back in the day. Tech quickly outrun law, especially communications tech.
- azernik 12y ago
  They're totally allowed to - consumers just will not use online solutions. The example from the article was a food delivery business that takes orders by fax, and (completely legally) tried to take orders online instead. Customers just didn't pick it up.
- jccalhoun 12y ago
  yes there are situations where faxes are needed in the USA. As I understand it mostly is in cases regarding legal documents. In the NYTimes article i linked in the previous post though they talk about individuals still buying fax machines and people preferring to fax their lunch orders to a restaurant instead of doing it on a website. From the article: "The Japanese government’s Cabinet Office said that almost 100 percent of business offices and 45 percent of private homes had a fax machine as of 2011. " I would be surprised if 10% of private homes in the USA have a fax machine.
  - j_lev 12y ago
    Keep in mind the marginal cost of getting a phone-fax instead of a regular phone for home here (Japan) is practically zero. A fax machine (or a landline for that matter) in the home isn't for me, but they're still moving down the development curve, releasing new features, improving quality and lowering costs. I have heard on more than one occasion the popularity of the consumer-level fax is tied to the importance placed on skillful handwriting. I have pointed out that there was no way the skillfulness of one's handwriting could be relayed via fax, and noted that there was a certain twisted irony in the fact that a once-new technology remained popular because of something so traditional. In the last 12 months I have required to use a fax machine about four times here. Twice for a group booking (baseball, riverboat cruise), and twice to send stuff back to my own government in Australia. In all these cases a scanned PDF was confirmed not acceptable.

digi_owl 12y ago

I seem to recall that various US agencies still require fax, because it is an approved legal document. I suspect something similar is in effect in Japan. Heck, South Korea is pretty much stuck on IE because they produced a national e-commerce solution based on ActiveX back in the day. Tech quickly outrun law, especially communications tech.

azernik 12y ago
They're totally allowed to - consumers just will not use online solutions. The example from the article was a food delivery business that takes orders by fax, and (completely legally) tried to take orders online instead. Customers just didn't pick it up.
jccalhoun 12y ago
yes there are situations where faxes are needed in the USA. As I understand it mostly is in cases regarding legal documents. In the NYTimes article i linked in the previous post though they talk about individuals still buying fax machines and people preferring to fax their lunch orders to a restaurant instead of doing it on a website. From the article: "The Japanese government’s Cabinet Office said that almost 100 percent of business offices and 45 percent of private homes had a fax machine as of 2011. " I would be surprised if 10% of private homes in the USA have a fax machine.
- j_lev 12y ago
  Keep in mind the marginal cost of getting a phone-fax instead of a regular phone for home here (Japan) is practically zero. A fax machine (or a landline for that matter) in the home isn't for me, but they're still moving down the development curve, releasing new features, improving quality and lowering costs. I have heard on more than one occasion the popularity of the consumer-level fax is tied to the importance placed on skillful handwriting. I have pointed out that there was no way the skillfulness of one's handwriting could be relayed via fax, and noted that there was a certain twisted irony in the fact that a once-new technology remained popular because of something so traditional. In the last 12 months I have required to use a fax machine about four times here. Twice for a group booking (baseball, riverboat cruise), and twice to send stuff back to my own government in Australia. In all these cases a scanned PDF was confirmed not acceptable.