[midoridensha]

>They still use fax and telegrams quite a lot

Telegrams? Is this some kind of joke? I've never seen anything resembling a telegram here.

Faxes are still used between businesses, which is much the same as the US where they're ubiquitous in the real estate and legal industries.

[tkgally]

Telegrams are still commonly used in Japan to send messages of congratulations and condolence.

https://www.denpoppo.com/

https://www.ntt-east.co.jp/dmail/

Wedding and funeral ceremonies often include a segment where someone reads aloud messages that have been delivered by telegram.

[midoridensha]

This doesn't seem like a technological issue at all, unlike Fax machines. Unless I'm missing something, this is basically like the old-fashioned "singing telegrams" in the US, except without the singing part: you're just hiring a person to deliver a message in-person and read it aloud. The message isn't being transmitted over actual telegraph wires.

[est]

I remember few years back Tokyo's Covid-19 numbers plateaued because the hand-written fax system

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-japan-...

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13373419

[supernova87a]

The UK's virus numbers did too. But because they ran out of Excel rows and didn't know it.

[brigandish]

> Telegrams? Is this some kind of joke? I've never seen anything resembling a telegram here.

They're used for special occasions, you can even get them printed on pretty paper and put in pretty envelopes.

[throwaway2037]

I didn't know that US real estate agents still use faxes. Really??? What are they sending? Floor layout?

[_def]

Just guessing, but maybe signed contracts

[throwaway2037]

Good point. I wonder if they fax for "round one", then use courier on bike for "round two".

[lost_tourist]

most don't, they use email and signed pdfs like most people, i'm sure there are some hold outs though.