But Japan is only the third largest market for telegrams. Ahead of Japan are Russia and Italy.
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"Unlike the much-maligned fax machine — frequently trotted out as evidence of Japan’s stubborn resistance to the digital age — the telegram..."
"... is a symbol of the nation’s love of propriety. (Yes, it’s possible to fax a telegram request.) For many Japanese of a certain age, the medium — extravagant, formal and nostalgic — is the message.
Kaoru Matsuda, a political consultant, said he believed that telegrams had stayed in use because they made a 'more polite impression.'
In business and politics, 'a fax is used very casually and feels businesslike,' he said. 'When it comes to things like condolences, telegrams are it.'... Japan is far from the only country where telegrams still exist."
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Not a bad idea. If something terrible happens, you don't really want to hear about it over the phone. It's good to have someone else there. Also, all the ceremony, bowing, using the right pronouns, can help get people through difficult times.
Ha! I remember when sports stars used to get telegrams from the president and from fans.
are their telegrams Really telegrams? Delivered to your door and everything?
That's kinda cool! (unless it's a telegram saying your husband died on the Ia Drang river).
But it would Still be a million times better than an email (which would probably end up in the spam folder)
It's been 15 years since I lived in Japan, but the fax machine was so vital! If you were invited somewhere, the person who was hosting the event would fax over directions to the location. Addresses are very different in Japan! It might have changed a lot with google maps now existing. It's probably a lot easier to find things now. But it's funny how I grew up in America and lived in many cities and states here, and lived in Hong Kong too before Tokyo. And yet-- there are other ways to lay out a city and assign addresses! Who knew?
Also, back then we would get spam faxes. You'd wake up in the morning and some company would have faxed an advertisement to us. So weird!
(for those curious about Japanese addresses, think of a target. The biggest area is the city, then the neighborhood of the city, then the section of the neighborhood, then the block, then the house number of the block. So an address might be 2-9-2 Azabu Juban, Tokyo. The neighborhood in Tokyo is Azabu Juban, it's in the #2 section of AJ, on block #9, House #2. Now, finding the sections and block numbers and order of houses is a whole 'other thing. But it's cool and different)
Interesting! I think I like it. I fucking hate texts. And emails. And phone calls from anyone outside of my Vital Few. Really, I'm needing fewer and fewer people in my life. Humans are OK for awhile, but they get on your nerves over time.
A telegram would be nice. Send a nice note, without your actual presence, and without the need for me to reply. That would work.
I'm so old I remember when there was a moment during the speeches at a wedding when the best man would read short telegrams expressing congratulations from family members who could not be present!
Fax machines everywhere in Japan.
Really odd, but the Japanese are really odd in the best way possible.
"Addresses are very different in Japan! It might have changed a lot with google maps now existing. It's probably a lot easier to find things now."
I lived there seven years ago and it was still difficult for foreigners like me to find specific buildings. The good news was a lot of buildings had their names on them in English.
For those that don't know, we use addresses that 'start small' (123 Main Street) and get larger (Pleasantville, WI 56087).
The Japanese start with the largest (Japan, Tokyo) and eventually get down to the neighborhood, block, intersection, building, etc.).
I believe the Nation's mentioned have an extremely large populations of what's now termed "senior citizens".
Telegrams are rather elegant. Having someone knock on your door and give you a telegram, beats an email anyday of the week.
Fax machines are still in use in the United States. Doctors and hospitals still use them. Multi-purpose devices still feature the fax option, so other people are still using them as well.
The thing is you do not need a fax machine anymore to send faxes. There are services that will convert emails into faxes for you. That somewhat defeats the purpose, as I assume they are using fax machines since they consider email to be insecure.
I still like fax machines.
Definitely the case in Italy and among older Italian-Americans. My late mother-in-law always sent a telegram of condolence when someone died.
Maybee pointed out...
for those curious about Japanese addresses, think of a target. The biggest area is the city, then the neighborhood of the city, then the section of the neighborhood,
When my boss got back from Japan (around 2010), he was impressed with How NEW all the cities were.
I told him; "Urban Renewal, courtesy of the XXth Airforce!"
He was an old Navy guy, but admitted: "Yep, the Airforce did quite a job, that time"
I read the NYT article to find out how sending a telegram works. The sender notifies the recipient that a telegram is being sent, then the sender transmits the message digitally to the service. On the destination side, it is printed and delivered to the recipient.
A telegram may make an impression, but it's kind of a pain in the ass that the recipient has to wait around for the message monkey to arrive.
I noticed that Ann has almost half as many comments on this article as the NYT does.
I'm 68 and have never been in the personal presence of a telegram in my life, nor heard of anyone I knew send or receive one. Is that unusual?
I started listening to Jack Benny radio shows in the past couple of years. Jack would occasionally be interrupted by a telegram delivery during a show, usually delivered by Mel Blanc's Brooklyn Guy character. Great stuff, and it made me realize how common telegrams were just a decade before I was born.
I told him; "Urban Renewal, courtesy of the XXth Airforce!"
Our American friend who had lived in Japan for 25 years told us that every old building in Tokyo was probably post-WWII and was just made to look old.
I thought of the shrines as being Disney-like.
Tokyo was bombed pool table flat during the war...
I wonder how much a telegram costs relative to a Hallmark card. If it’s the thought that counts, which is better, a telegram of a card? Presumably the telegram would get there faster than a card sent by regular mail. And I, at least, would see a telegram or email sooner than a personal email, which I only check every couple of weeks.
As I recall, the 1959 movie North By Northwest has some funny scenes involving Cary Grant sending telegrams to his mother while running around Manhattan. Did Hitchcock single-handle kill the telegram in the U.S.?
Found telegrams of congratulations from when I was born.
Seem to remember last Western Union telegram sent some years back in India.
I'm amazed that anyone uses fax machines and telegrams. Why bother? It's slower and more cumbersome. I suppose someone will created an app that will you create a telegram or telex on your Iphone and include in the app a scanner and fax option. What for I really don't understand but I presume it would be analogous to programs that emulate old operating systems and cpu's in order to run old software on new computers. Is anyone nostalgic for manual brakes, three speed unsynchronized manual transmissions and non hydraulic steering and hand crank starters? If there is, there would be a market for Model T replicas.
The lexical space is becoming much more cluttered. A DuckDuckGo search on telegram is, as I expected, saturated with results pertaining to the Telegram app.
I'd love to receive a telegram! However, these days you only think of them in relation to a death so it might freak people out to get one out of the blue and for no good reason.
Fax machines are not uncommon in law firms. As few as ten years ago, court rules (at least in SF Superior) demanded that signatures needed to be originals, and if the signatory was unavailable to sign in person, the page had to be a faxed copy with the date/time stamp demonstrating it was legit (and having the law firm's name) and sent within the filing deadline. Now with most courts using e-filing, that's gone by the wayside somewhat.
You want to have choices. People shouldn't feel compelled to have a cellphone and phone contract (or a car, for that matter).
The Pope expressed his condolences to King Charles at the Late Queen's death via a telegram; the Roman Pontiffs have consistently used the medium for such purposes since it was first introduced, I believe.
Am almost 65 and remember sending a couple of telegrams, long ago, but I've never received one.
During the world wars, when there were too many KIAs for casualty notification teams to keep up, telegrams were the official method for next-of-kin notification in the US.
People dreaded seeing the Western Union boy biking down their block and held their breath until he passed.
I assume other countries did the same.
Probably helped lend an air of formality and importance to telegrams for other occasions.
I remember seeing a telegram our next-door neighbor sent my mom on the occasion of my birth in the mid-1960s.
JSM
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