Facsimiles Doggedly Hanging On in this Age of Email: A Reflection of Japan's Rapidly Aging Society?

 Is the end to the age of facsimiles imminent now that we are in an age of email use? It does not look that way, at least not in Japan.
 The use of facsimiles is certainly on the decline. Most inter-office correspondences and documents can now be exchanged through email. Images and diagrams can also be easily attached to an email message so long as digital data is available. You do not even have to send them by email if you have a URL where such data can be downloaded by the intended recipient. However, there are two reasons why facsimiles will survive the email age in Japan.
 For one, there is already a mature market for home facsimiles in Japan, and manufacturers can expect sustained demand through the purchase of replacement units. Facsimiles for home use, which double as phones, are inexpensively priced in Japan; in fact, it is the ordinary telephone that is in danger in terms of a market.

Smaller Units with Multiple Functions

Home use facsimiles which still sell well in Japan

 A second reason is that all-in-one multi-functional business machines that combine facsimile, copier and printer functions are beginning to be accepted by the market. The purchase of such a unit not only costs less than buying single-function devices separately but also helps to conserve space and energy consumption at the office.
 Since few American and European manufacturers make fax machines, they are not very strong in the field of multi-functional faxes.
Meanwhile, they are flagship products for Japanese manufacturers who are trying to take the market away from single-function copiers and printers. Statistics for the industry show that the value of business facsimiles shipped in 2003 was 350 billion yen. Growth to 400 billion yen is forecast for 2004. Although an analog device, facsimiles are surprisingly making a good showing despite the advance of a digital revolution.

 Fax machines made in Japan account for the greater majority of facsimile machines sold in the global facsimile market. A technology which first developed as a means for sending photographs, it was through the efforts of Japanese manufacturers such as Canon, Ricoh and the Matsushita Group (Panasonic) that fax machines became the widely-used, indispensable office communication system that they are in the present day. Japan's kanji (Chinese characters) culture is behind the reason why Japanese manufacturers excel today in the production of fax machines. Facsimile machines used to be an atypical piece of equipment that was extremely expensive. In the West with its alphabet-based culture, the telex, which evolved from typewriters, was in widespread use while facsimile machines did not spread at all.

There is a Market for Home Facsimile Machines in Japan

Multifunctional business-use facsimile (Ricoh Co., Ltd. make)

 Written Japanese, however, cannot be sent by telex since it uses kanji ideograms instead of an alphabet. Taking note of this fact, Japanese manufacturers utilized its expertise in mass production techniques to launch facsimile machines at competitive prices and succeeded in popularizing the use of the fax in Japan. Once prices were lowered, the West rediscovered the benefit of the facsimile's ability to transmit images, and it came into general use. In other words, the modern-day facsimile is a machine that spread from Japan to the world. Today, Japan has even seen the birth of a home facsimile market that is unlike any other country.
 Atsuo Hidaka, who is conducting a survey of market trends at an economic organization, says:

Japan is a rapidly aging society, and there are many who are not skilled in the use of home information appliances. When television programs ask viewers to send in opinions, they ask them to do so by fax. Furthermore, the majority of bureaucratic and corporate contract procedures are print based. The fact that there is still a need for the fax machine is linked to the demand for the multi-functional fax machine.

  It cannot be denied, however, that growth of the global market for facsimile equipment has come to an end, and we are seeing a gentle decline beginning in this market. Japanese manufacturers are aware that the shrinking of the facsimile market may have a direct effect, in the long-term, on business performance. However, the dominant opinion at present is that the fax will hang on more doggedly than may be generally expected.