Japan, Faxes and Penmanship Etiquette

Writing by hand and especially good penmanship are skills which continue to be highly valued by the Japanese, at a time when cursive penmanship is barely being taught in schools in Western nations.

 From 2012:

The culture of handwriting is firmly rooted in Japan. The majority of resumes or CVs (curriculum vitae) are still handwritten because Japanese employers are said to judge people's personalities from their writings. 

Fax machines gather dust in parts of the world, consigned to history since the rise of email. Yet in Japan, a country with a hi-tech reputation, the fax is thriving.

At Japan's talent agency HoriPro Inc, Yutaro Suzuki is busy writing up his next project proposal. Not typing, but writing by hand.

HoriPro is one of the largest and oldest agencies in the country and Suzuki publicises almost 300 singers and actors. But behind this glamorous profile, he cordially writes detailed schedules by hand.

"It takes longer but my feelings and passion come across better," says the 48-year-old public relations expert. "I find emails very cold so I prefer to fax handwritten documents."

In a country which boasts one of the fastest broadband speeds in the world, Suzuki thinks his affection for the fax may be a rare case in such a tech-savvy country. But 87.5% of Japanese businessmen surveyed by the Internet Fax Research Institute say that a fax machine is a crucial business tool.

And Suzuki's preference reflects aspects of Japanese culture which still embrace fax machines, despite their disappearance from parts of the developed world.

Firstly, the culture of handwriting is firmly rooted here. For example, the majority of resumes are still handwritten because Japanese employers are said to judge people's personalities from their writings.

For season's greetings cards, don't dare think of sending computer generated messages, says Midori's "how to write a letter" website.

"New Year's cards without handwritten messages come across as businesslike and automatic," it says.
                         

Though what we once used daily for a century, has nearly been tossed to the wayside due to new technology, 87.5% of Japanese businessmen surveyed by the Internet Fax Research Institute in 2012 say that a fax machine is a crucial business tool. 

Not surprisingly, people aspire to have good handwriting. Calligraphy remains one of the most popular lessons that parents send their children to and many adults take private lessons to improve their writings, too. 

Secondly, Japan is obsessed with hard copies. People like to hold actual documents, not just to receive soft copies. 

"You may miss an email but if you fax a document, it's physically there so you cannot miss it," says Setsuko Tsushima who runs a real estate agency. 

"Even if I am not in the office, other staff would notice that an urgent document has come through," she adds. 

For any official documents including housing contracts, they also require seals instead of signatures in Japan. 

The majority of the population has a seal called jitsuin which is officially registered as theirs through a government office. 

Unless original documents must be submitted in person, fax machines again come in handy because documents stamped with seals can be sent. 

There is another reason Japan continues to use fax machines in the email era. 

Japan is a country known to be high-tech but not everyone is. More than a fifth of the population is aged over 65. 

The older generation who cannot keep up with emails still prefer to use fax machines. 

That is why Supermarket Aeon has decided to take orders by fax and phone, not just on their website. 

"We started taking orders online in 2008 but received quite a few requests from customers, especially in rural areas, that they prefer to order by phone or fax," says Hideo Binnaka who heads the online sales team. 

"They are mainly our older customers so we also offer to check up on them if we don't receive any orders for a month to make sure that they are ok." 

There are two types of Japanese consumers: those who are very high-tech and others who are still wedded to traditional forms. 

The majority of Japanese households - 58.6% of them according to the government - still owns a fax machine, which also functions as a phone. 

They are not necessarily clunky and old, however, because the manufacturers continue to release new models which have the latest technology including online faxing. It allows users to fax a document by using the internet. 

The Internet Fax Research Institute says that more Japanese companies are keen to use e-fax (a fax sent using the internet) due to advantages such as cost reduction, business efficiency and environmental friendliness. 

But for Suzuki, nothing beats handwriting. "I draw maps, too," he says. And there it is, on his summer party invitation, a map to the venue with every detail that partygoers need. –From BBC News, Tokyo, by Mariko Oi, 2012

 🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Lovers' Tech Skirt's Etiquette

How the newest technological marvel aided in elminating the Spanish royal court etiquette of the era, and romance flourished...

The modern, 19th century technology allowed a Spanish King to get the better of the traditional and implacable etiquette of a court where he couldn't get an egg boiled without 6 successive messengers and 10 pairs of hands.

The Telephone for Love Making

“The King,” writes a correspondent from Madrid, “spends with his bride all the time allowed him by etiquette and public affairs. He hastens to Aranjuez, where she is staying, and during the journey the royal Leander will sometimes look out at the carriage window to see on the horizon the bare trees under which Philip II conspired against the conscience of the world.”

When he returns from Aranjuez, his impatience leads him to a part of the palace where modern science has placed its latest discovery at the service of the royal lover, and annihilates the space which for two days longer separates him from his bride. A telephone, in fact, has been fitted up, connecting one of the King’s rooms with that of Princess Mercedes, and enabling them to converse together, free from indiscreet eyes and ears.

Strange to think that the telephone should thus get the better of the traditional and implacable etiquette of a court where the King cannot get an egg boiled without 6 successive messengers and 10 pairs of hands. Yet more strange is a love so rarely found in the loftiest stations, and which could only spring up and gain strength because two hearts met in the solitude of exile, far from the factitious pomp of courtly constraint. — The Daily Alta, 1878

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Fax Etiquette Facts

and why this etiquette is still necessary

“I finally got rid of my fax machine in 2014. I was receiving so many unsolicited faxes on a daily basis, it simply wasn’t worth the cost. As I was paying for the ink, the paper, the phone line and electricity, it was like paying for the postage on the junk mail the mailman delivers weekly into my mail box.” – Etiquipedia© Site Editor, Maura J. Graber, Director of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette 

From 1989:

Let us pause in the day's occupation to consider some of the social issues related to facsimile (fax) technology. Learning to use a fax machine or a PC fax device is relatively easy, but learning to use it responsibly appears to be a little more difficult. There is an etiquette to faxing, just as there is to correspondence, telephone calls or personal meetings.

Imagine if a loud and abrasive stranger walked unannounced into your office, slapped you on the back, asked you to stop working while he made a sales pitch, reached into your desk drawer for a pen and piece of paper, then asked to borrow your phone for a few minutes. Worse, suppose he dashed from the room before you had the satisfaction of throwing a paperweight at him.

That is essentially the way a fax hacker attacks. The key to a fax machine's power, and also its Achilles' heel, is that it works over regular telephone lines. Any boor with a fax machine and your phone number can deluge you with unwanted documents.

The assault can be more egregious than junk mail or telephone calls because the fax hacker uses your machine, your paper and your phone line. Also, many fax machines have ''broadcast'' capability, letting them send the same message to more than one fax machine while operating unattended, so one fax hacker can easily annoy dozens of people.

As more and more fax machines enter offices, hotels, restaurants, airline terminals and homes, senders need to be aware of how to avoid offending receivers. The Golden Rule is simple: Fax unto others as you would have others fax unto you.

People need to keep their fax machines open to receive important documents, but that means the machine is open to unsolicited documents as well. When one document is coming in, all others are held up.

Companies that send frivolous letters by fax, perhaps in the belief that the technology itself lends an air of importance, are temporarily appropriating another company's resources.

“Ah, bless them. News emerges that the royal family sent their ‘save the date’ wedding notifications to the heads of all the other European dynasties (or third-to-sixth-cousins as they might also be described) by fax. In a way, it's nice to know that the monarchy’s internal clock has made it all the way to 1985. Perhaps soon they will discover Duran Duran and finally start to understand where poor Diana was coming from.” – The Guardian News, 2011

The intrusion is even worse if the receiving fax is installed inside a personal computer. Unless the fax board is capable of operating in true background mode, meaning that it acts independently from the computer's main processor, an incoming fax can seize control of the computer, forcing the user to halt whatever work is in progress until the transmission ends.

If the intrusion comes at the moment a user is storing a file, there is also a risk of losing important data. ''Just last night I got 56 pages, all of them a repeat of the same sales promotion from a thermal paper company,'' said Bill McCue, marketing manager for Public Fax Inc. of Orange, Calif., which publishes a directory of public fax stations. Apparently the sender had meant to broadcast the message to different recipients but had mis-programmed the machine.

''He was very apologetic and said he was sending me a replacement roll of paper,'' Mr. McCue said. ''The lesson is that when you're broadcasting, you should be careful whom you're sending it to and considerate of what the reaction is going to be.''

The delayed transmission feature on many fax machines allows the sender to instruct the fax machine to wait until night, when phone rates are lower, before broadcasting its messages. Besides saving on phone bills, it does not tie up the recipient's fax machine during working hours.

Start every transmission with a cover letter stating the sender's name, the number of pages being sent, including the cover letter, the recipient's name and any other information that will help get the fax to the proper person. Include a telephone number to call in case there is a problem with the transmission, such as a lost page or dropped line.

Use as complete an address as possible. Imagine the fate of a letter addressed simply to ''Daddy, Big Building in New York.'' Remember that a telephone number can serve hundreds of people. it can be dangerous to assume that the recipient actually received the transmission, especially if the fax was unsolicited. A successful transmission simply means that the document made its way to the receiving paper tray.

Above all, call ahead to get the rules of engagement, especially from people to whom you plan to send faxes regularly. After all, you are asking for permission to use their expensive equipment and their even more valuable time.

Calling ahead requires an investment of a few minutes of telephone time, but it pays off by conveying the impression that you take the process, and the information to be sent, seriously. Also ask if a follow-up call is necessary.

If receivers decline to give their fax numbers, respect their wishes. Some people buy fax machines in the spirit that it is better to transmit than to receive. – This article originally appeared in the NY Times, 1989

Is the Fax Machine and Its Etiquette Still Relevant Today? Yes!

 From 2012:

The culture of handwriting is firmly rooted in Japan. The majority of resumes or CVs (curriculum vitae) are still handwritten because Japanese employers are said to judge people's personalities from their writings.

Fax machines gather dust in parts of the world, consigned to history since the rise of email. Yet in Japan, a country with a hi-tech reputation, the fax is thriving.

At Japan's talent agency HoriPro Inc, Yutaro Suzuki is busy writing up his next project proposal. Not typing, but writing by hand.

HoriPro is one of the largest and oldest agencies in the country and Suzuki publicises almost 300 singers and actors. But behind this glamorous profile, he cordially writes detailed schedules by hand.

"It takes longer but my feelings and passion come across better," says the 48-year-old public relations expert. "I find emails very cold so I prefer to fax handwritten documents."

In a country which boasts one of the fastest broadband speeds in the world, Suzuki thinks his affection for the fax may be a rare case in such a tech-savvy country. But 87.5% of Japanese businessmen surveyed by the Internet Fax Research Institute say that a fax machine is a crucial business tool.

And Suzuki's preference reflects aspects of Japanese culture which still embrace fax machines, despite their disappearance from parts of the developed world.

Firstly, the culture of handwriting is firmly rooted here. For example, the majority of resumes are still handwritten because Japanese employers are said to judge people's personalities from their writings.

For season's greetings cards, don't dare think of sending computer generated messages, says Midori's "how to write a letter" website.

"New Year's cards without handwritten messages come across as businesslike and automatic," it says.

                        

Though what we once used daily for a century, has nearly been tossed to the wayside due to new technology, 87.5% of Japanese businessmen surveyed by the Internet Fax Research Institute in 2012 say that a fax machine is a crucial business tool.

Not surprisingly, people aspire to have good handwriting. Calligraphy remains one of the most popular lessons that parents send their children to and many adults take private lessons to improve their writings, too.


Secondly, Japan is obsessed with hard copies. People like to hold actual documents, not just to receive soft copies.


"You may miss an email but if you fax a document, it's physically there so you cannot miss it," says Setsuko Tsushima who runs a real estate agency.


"Even if I am not in the office, other staff would notice that an urgent document has come through," she adds.


For any official documents including housing contracts, they also require seals instead of signatures in Japan.


The majority of the population has a seal called jitsuin which is officially registered as theirs through a government office.

Unless original documents must be submitted in person, fax machines again come in handy because documents stamped with seals can be sent.

There is another reason Japan continues to use fax machines in the email era.

Japan is a country known to be high-tech but not everyone is. More than a fifth of the population is aged over 65.

The older generation who cannot keep up with emails still prefer to use fax machines.

That is why Supermarket Aeon has decided to take orders by fax and phone, not just on their website.

"We started taking orders online in 2008 but received quite a few requests from customers, especially in rural areas, that they prefer to order by phone or fax," says Hideo Binnaka who heads the online sales team.

"They are mainly our older customers so we also offer to check up on them if we don't receive any orders for a month to make sure that they are ok."

There are two types of Japanese consumers: those who are very high-tech and others who are still wedded to traditional forms.

The majority of Japanese households - 58.6% of them according to the government - still owns a fax machine, which also functions as a phone.

They are not necessarily clunky and old, however, because the manufacturers continue to release new models which have the latest technology including online faxing. It allows users to fax a document by using the internet.

The Internet Fax Research Institute says that more Japanese companies are keen to use e-fax (a fax sent using the internet) due to advantages such as cost reduction, business efficiency and environmental friendliness.

But for Suzuki, nothing beats handwriting. "I draw maps, too," he says. And there it is, on his summer party invitation, a map to the venue with every detail that partygoers need. –From BBC News, Tokyo, by Mariko Oi, 2012

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

10 Commandments of Mobile Etiquette

In a 2011 survey, 13% of people polled said that they had pretended to be talking to someone on their cell phones, to avoid talking to other people around them. Etiquipedia's guess is the actual percentage is much higher.

1. Thou shalt give your phone a rest. Smartphones, mobile phones, cell phones... Whatever you call them, they are not personal appendages. At least they are not supposed to be. They are a way of facilitating communication with others more easily. Yours does not need to be in your hand 24/7, as one needs to be sleeping at some point out of those 24 hours a day.

2. Thou shalt turn off your ringer in public places and not set your phone down in front of you at a restaurant table or any other place where you are meeting with others face to face. Nothing is more annoying than being mid-sentence in a conversation, and having someone's phone light up, buzz or ring. It can stop genial and productive flows of conversation, only so others can ask, "Do you need to take that?"

3. Thou shalt not indulge in "Cell Yell." If the person that you're talking to can't hear you, don't yell. Unless you are whispering, you probably just have a lousy connection. "Cell yell" puts others around you in cell hell, and does not help the situation anymore than it does to yell in your native tongue at people who do not speak your language.

4. Thou shalt not text or talk while holding on to your device if you are driving or operating any other machinery. There have been too many fatalities and fender-benders caused by cell phone distraction. If a call or text is that important to you, pull off the road and send your text, tweet, or make your call.

5. Thou shalt not "phub." "Phubbing" is the act of snubbing someone in a social setting by looking at your phone instead of paying attention to the person or people you are with. In other words, don't talk or text when you are in the company of anyone else, unless you have an emergency of some sort, or the person with you is in on what is being said or texted. 

Smartphones shouldn't be barriers between you and your child's, or grandchild's activities. Letting them be a part of your phone's use helps reduce iGuilt.

 iGuilt- Do you suffer from this dreaded affliction? 

They call it iGuilt. It's become an increasingly common sight at Saturday morning sport as parents tap away at their phones, missing little Jimmy's goal. Some parents don't even realise what they're doing while others readily admit they devote more attention to their iPhone than to their child. The modern world is filled with technological distractions, from smartphones to laptops to iPads, which are increasingly hard to switch off. Netsafe director and father of a 4 and 8-year-old, Martin Cocker admitted smartphones sometimes interfered with his parenting. His job means he needs to always be contactable by media and colleagues and so he always has his phone on and with him. "If I get messages, I check them and if my phone rings, I answer it because it might be work-related. But the bulk of the time, of course, it's not." Mr. Cocker said smartphone technologies were deliberately designed to keep people engaged. "It's designed to get you using it and to keep you using, making it harder to pull away." They do that because they don't make money in a traditional way. You don't pay to use a lot of the services that people are constantly using on their smartphones, but the more you use it the more the companies who own the apps can sell the advertising for," he said. As well, new technologies have removed the ability to stop working when you leave the office, meaning work inevitably creeps into home life. Mother of two and iPhone user Rochelle Gribble admitted she's fallen victim to iGuilt after seeing the behaviour of 3-year-old Caitlin deteriorate when she devotes too much time to her iPhone. "I've become increasingly mindful that I need to not have my iPhone out when my kids are around," she said. "When my daughter wants my attention but I'm on my phone she does something which she knows is naughty and she's basically trying to get my attention. So it's at that moment when I know I need to put down my phone, put away the computer and engage with her." Mrs Gribble works from home and runs parenting advice website."One of the reason I work from home is so I can spend time with my kids and I want to enjoy their childhood and here I am checking my email at the park." She frequently sees parents getting distracted by their phones while pushing their children on the swings at the park. "There's lots of little fun distractions on the internet, like Facebook, and sometimes it's a heck of a lot more interesting than talking to your children, let's be honest. And it's also a lot less demanding." Professor Alan France, head of the Sociology department at the University of Auckland, said the positive impact of technology should be noted as well. Gadgets like PlayStation's Wii had the ability to draw families together to play games while children having increased access to mobile phones meant parents could worry less." ... mobiles have improved parents' connection to their children and I don't see that as a bad thing." Mr. Cocker suggested "technology-free weekends" to help improve family-time, or even just a technology-free day or afternoon. ~ Source New Zealand Herald News, 2012

6. Thou shalt not make a call or take a call of a highly personal nature in a public place. If others can hear your conversation, maintain a distance of at least 10 feet from the closest person next to you, so that they do not have to hear your half of a conversation about your sex life, or lack thereof.

The selfie seen 'round the world. Digital diplomacy or international embarrassment?

7. Thou shalt not take selfies at funerals, mortuaries or memorial services. And while we're on the subject of photos, don't take pictures or video of anyone without their permission first. That handy availability of a camera on your phone? It doesn't give you the right to photograph someone.

8. Thou shalt not use your cell phone at the theater, opera, symphony, lecture or a play, unless you need to call for emergency services.

9. Thou shalt not call or text someone in anger. Anger makes people say things they regret later on. If you are angry, wait 12 to 24 hours to cool off, then make your call or text.

10. If your call is dropped, call the person back out of courtesy, regardless of which phone you suspect dropped the call. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Respect should not be a one-way street.

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Google Glass Etiquette

GOOGLE'S GLASS ETIQUETTE GUIDE

Breaking the rules or being rude will not get businesses excited about Glass and will ruin it for other Explorers.

DO:

Explore the world around you. Glass puts you more in control of your technology and frees you to look up and engage with the world around you rather than look down and be distracted from it. Have a hangout with your friends, get walking directions to a fantastic new restaurant, or get an update on that delayed flight.

Take advantage of the Glass voice commands. Glass can free your hands up to do other things like golfing, cooking, or juggling flaming torches while balancing on a beach ball (but also see Don’ts #2). This is great for looking up how many ounces in a cup while you cook, or taking a one-of-a-kind photo from your unique perspective.

Ask for permission. Standing alone in the corner of a room staring at people while recording them through Glass is not going to win you any friends (see Don’ts #4). The Glass camera function is no different from a cell phone so behave as you would with your phone and ask permission before taking photos or videos of others.

Use screen lock. Glass screen lock works like your smartphone’s screen lock: it passcode-protects your device to help prevent others from using it. If you ever lose your device or have it stolen by a budding online resale entrepreneur, you can turn off Glassware and perform a remote wipe (e.g. factory reset) of the device, removing all your information from the device. All you need to do is go to your MyGlass page on your browser, or the MyGlass App on your phone.

Be an active and vocal member of the Glass Explorer Community. The Explorer Program was created in order to have a place where our Explorers can give feedback, share content and communicate with the Glass team. It’s been hugely successful over the past year and this is due to our wonderful group of Explorers. They are constantly sharing their worlds with us and with each other, allowing us to hear and work on all the great feedback and stories our Explorers give us (and, wow, do they give us a lot!).

DON’T:  

Glass-out. Glass was built for short bursts of information and interactions that allow you to quickly get back to doing the other things you love. If you find yourself staring off into the prism for long periods of time you’re probably looking pretty weird to the people around you. So don’t read War and Peace on Glass. Things like that are better done on bigger screens.

Rock Glass while doing high-impact sports. Glass is a piece of technology, so use common sense. Water skiing, bull riding or cage fighting with Glass are probably not good ideas.

Wear it and expect to be ignored. Let’s face it, you’re gonna get some questions. Be patient and explain that Glass has a lot of the same features as a mobile phone (camera, maps, email, etc.). Also, develop your own etiquette. If you’re worried about someone interrupting that romantic dinner at a nice restaurant with a question about Glass, just take it off and put it around the back of your neck or in your bag.

Be creepy or rude (aka, a “Glasshole”). Respect others and if they have questions about Glass don’t get snappy. Be polite and explain what Glass does and remember, a quick demo can go a long way. In places where cell phone cameras aren’t allowed, the same rules will apply to Glass. If you’re asked to turn your phone off, turn Glass off as well. Breaking the rules or being rude will not get businesses excited about Glass and will ruin it for other Explorers.– As reported by NBC News

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia