Japanese government still uses faxes for data collection
By Denise
@petatonicsca (7070)
Japan
July 20, 2020 7:45pm CST
I read the following article today. I'm a bit surprised and yet not surprised. This is a country that still uses paper, hand-written applications and files for everything from the doctors' offices to tax, marriage and family registry, etc. Each city office has huge paper files all over to keep track of everything.
The way we are hearing about the data for the day (which now turns out to be three days ago's data) is that each testing center faxes each patient's information on one page. We see the data nicely collected on computerized charts. I am wondering why it is still collected by fax when Japan is so advanced in technology. I guess our tax yen aren't enough for them to get good computers. Or maybe they don't want the data hacked? I don't know. It just seems very antiquated.
Does this surprise you?
Every morning, two fax machines at a Tokyo metropolitan government office churn out reports that wil
6 people like this
10 responses
@Deepizzaguy (103967)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
21 Jul 20
It is a very strange way to share way sharing data.
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
21 Jul 20
Takes time, wastes paper, takes up space, and, actually, costs money (for each fax they have to pay for a local call to the telephone service).
1 person likes this
@Deepizzaguy (103967)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
21 Jul 20
@petatonicsca I know what you mean since sending a fax to a business out of state is expensive compared to sending a letter.
@amitkokiladitya (171927)
• Agra, India
21 Jul 20
I wonder why such an advanced country like them would be doing this
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
21 Jul 20
There are a lot of things I wonder about this "advanced" country.
1 person likes this
@amitkokiladitya (171927)
• Agra, India
21 Jul 20
@petatonicsca that really sounds very strange to me. What are the other things you are talking about
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
21 Jul 20
At least polite, if not all nice.
And honestly, we would have gotten to the "work from home" movement a lot faster if they would totally cancel the idea that you have to take a piece of paper to get a physical hanko (official stamp) to get anything done. Our Tokyo governor is encouraging people to work from home and use "Cloud Stamp" but a lot of old-time companies are resistant, with the result that the trains are crowded every day.
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
21 Jul 20
I am guessing your country doesn't use faxes any more either.
1 person likes this
@Miss_Leafy (4296)
• Colombia
21 Jul 20
That's a bit weird. In my country, almost all people don't use fax anymore
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
21 Jul 20
I know, we have a fax at school but hardly ever use it. Japan likes paper for some reason.
1 person likes this
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
21 Jul 20
Computers should also be used for quick communication and compiling data, especially during the pandemic.
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
21 Jul 20
The thing is, it's not backup, it's the main source. Hard copies are good, but this might not be the best way to get them.
1 person likes this
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
21 Jul 20
It probably was really cool back in the 1990s or so.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (341742)
• Rockingham, Australia
21 Jul 20
This does seem an old fashioned way of storing records now.
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
21 Jul 20
No kidding. Not just storing records but collecting important health data every day.
1 person likes this
