Fax Machine
Japan was unable to rid its government offices of the fax machine after officials resisted a switch to email, saying that abolishing the fax machine would pose a security risk.
Ghislain & Marie David de Lossy/Getty Images
  • Government officials in Japan have argued that antiquated fax machines should stay in its offices.
  • They worry that switching from fax to email will present a security risk.
  • Japanese authorities say the fax machine is counterproductive to working from home, as employees must travel to the office to send and receive faxes.
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The fax machine, a hallmark of the 1980s office era, is unlikely to leave high-tech Japan anytime soon.

The country has scrapped earlier plans to banish the fax machine from Tokyo's bureaucratic district of Kasumigaseki, after hundreds of government offices argued for the telex to stay, reported local newspaper Hokkaido Shimbun on Wednesday.

Taro Kono, Japan's minister in charge of administrative reform, said in April that he planned to make government ministries and agencies in Kasumigaseki switch to email.

Fax machines are a "hindrance" to telework during the pandemic, he said, especially when some Japanese employees work from home but must return to their offices to send and receive faxes. Meanwhile, while the country is grappling with Covid-19 spikes and a sluggish vaccinaton rollout.

But government officials rallied to fiercely defend the fax machine, saying it would be "impossible" to abolish, per Hokkaido Shimbun.

They claimed that banning faxes would pose a security risk in their communications, and "anxiety over the communication environment," the local paper reported - despite the fact that the bulk of major industries across the world communicate via email and encrypted messaging.

The backlash has prompted the cabinet body for anti-fax reform to stand down, a blow to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's push for Japan's government bodies to go digital.

He also previously told ministries and agencies to stop using hanko seals, a traditional custom stamp for contracts and other administrative documents. Hanko seals have been criticized as an unnecessary measure that requires face-to-face interaction amid the pandemic.

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