Fax- Appeal – Japanese Still Enamored with Their Fax Machines!

Why does a nation conceived as being High- Tech can’t let go a technology of the 20th Century?

Introduction:

No dear reader, rest assured, this is not going to be another wacky tabloid story about Japan’s backwardness concerning technological adoption.

Rather, it is an investigation about ignorant western correspondents of highly esteemed news outlets like The Guardian, New York Times, Financial Times, Washington Post, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine (to name just a few) trotting out stories about Japanese quirks that are nothing more than make-believe the western public. Correspondents not even located in Japan and when, barely speak Japanese, much less read and write it.

It is not that they are spreading “fake news”, lying to their audience. That would imply they knew the truth. Unfortunately, it is even worse, as they are “Bullshitting” their readers. Pretending being knowledgeable about a region and culture when they really don’t have a clue.

Foreign correspondents in Japan have little or no training in Japanese language or culture. They typically reach their position by being a witty writer and storyteller, rather than a linguist or multi-culturalist. Garner this with a Japanese “Press Club” (“Kisha Kurabu”), limiting the flow of critical news coming from within Japan. Off we go: An ill-informed western journalist, ballyhooing the abnormal and weird about Japan.

Nowadays, most stories about Japan in the western media emphasize on the distinctiveness. The result: Highly exaggerated and stereotyped stories. Worse, the stories are mostly written with an orientalist ideology, portraying Japan as irrational and inferior compared to the west.

Orientalism and stereotyping the Japanese is not a new phenomenon. Since Europe’s first encounter with Japan through Portuguese missionaries and Dutch traders in the 16th Century, reporting on Japan has been riddled with contradicting terms, portraying the Japanese as quasi- savage Samurais inclined to politeness.

Fax machine Meets Gundam

Reporting on Japan’s technological adoption is a frequent theme and often puzzling, at least to me. It could happen that in the same article Japan is depicted as being low-tech (usage of Fax machines) and high-tech (adoption of Robots). How can this be?

Reporting about Fax machine usage serves as a perfect example how misleading coverage of “Things Japanese” can be. It is a recurring theme and Japanese are often ridiculed in those articles, like stressing an emotional bond between the Japanese and their fax-machines. As if both had a romantic relationship.

Journalists in the west may not use fax machines in their jobs. My sister, who is not Japanese and works in the film industry, certainly does. Thus, not using fax machines in one profession or country, does not automatically mean they are not used in any other!

Surely, fax machines can still be found in Japanese offices. But their use is restricted to specific occasions. And yes, home fax units are displayed at electronic retailers in Japan. But the in-store advertising usually targets elderly and housewives. Furthermore, home fax units cost only slightly more than a landline telephone. Could it be that many Japanese make the rational choice substituting a landline telephone?

In addition, Japan’s use of communication technology, including fax machines, is not incomparable to that of many western countries. Germany serves as a perfect example, where faxing continues to be a common form of communication, used more frequently than video conferencing and web portals/customer interfaces. Even in certain sectors of the US economy fax machines are still widely used and usage even growing: Need a referral and/ or prescription refill? Not without a fax!

Although Fax usage in Germany is comparable to Japan, you hardly find a wacky story about Germanys technological backwardness and weirdness in the Anglo- Saxon media. But when Japan is concerned, independently of the subject, articles are riddled with stereotyping, resulting in depictions that present Japan as the weird other.

According to Hayes (2018) a simple LexisNexis database search of the headlines and lead paragraphs of UK’s main national newspapers (print and online) between 2000 to 2015, revealed connotations like ‘bizarre’ in 378, ‘crazy’ in 242, ‘strange’ in 378, ‘unique’ in 326, 190 ‘unusual’ in 345, and ‘weird’ in 194 articles alongside Japan.

Conclusion

Abovementioned connotations used by western correspondents are intended to highlight the distinctiveness, stubbornness and/ or fixation of the Japanese. Presenting to their “modern”, “technologically-advanced”, “enlightened” and “morally superior” western audience a wacky and weird country that is stuck in the past, unable to change that just does not get it. A country that is unique, unknowable and unchanging (UUU).

Such “Bullshitting” about Japan should wet the appetite of the contrarian “Value Investor” inclined to do some additional work of scratching the surface, because it has profound, tangible and measurable implications on the attitude of the occident towards Japan, especially in the investment community.

“Bullshitting” by the western media is another piece solving the puzzle why viable businesses in Japan are given away for a fraction of its conservatively measured intrinsic value.

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