Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Telegram Not Dead STOP Alive, Evolving In Japan STOP

Posted by samzenpus on from the old-school dept.

itwbennett writes Japan is one of the last countries in the world where telegrams are still widely used. A combination of traditional manners, market liberalization and innovation has kept alive this age-old form of messaging. Companies affiliated with the country's three mobile carriers, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank, offer telegrams, which are sent via modern server networks instead of the dedicated electrical wires of the past (Morse telegraphy hasn't been used since 1962), and then printed out with modern printers instead of tape glued on paper. But customers are still charged according to the length of the message, which is delivered within three hours. A basic NTT telegram up to 25 characters long can be sent for ¥440 ($4.30) when ordered online.

37 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Japan is still pretty backwards in some ways by Tyrannicsupremacy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Also worth mentioning is the way employees are paid, frequently envelopes of cash, direct deposit is not very popular yet there.

    --
    http://i.cubeupload.com/T6cyLu.png
    1. Re:Japan is still pretty backwards in some ways by johanw · · Score: 2

      Better than checks which appear to be still in use in the USA. At least it's anonymous.

    2. Re:Japan is still pretty backwards in some ways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Salary dates are known. It's a risk to carry that much cash. Even manually cashed checks are better since they recipient's name is written on it.

    3. Re:Japan is still pretty backwards in some ways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not to mention that cash payments are ripe for tax avoidance.

      Direct deposit and cashing a check both produce a paper trail that government accountants can track. Cash payments are much easier to hide.

    4. Re:Japan is still pretty backwards in some ways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Check his posting record... 633 comments, most of them AOL-tier, including whining about moderation.

      Maybe he'll calm down when he graduates from high school.

      Free hint for him: make fewer, higher-quality posts. Learn the trick of replying to get it out of your system, and then hitting cancel instead of submit because it wasn't really worth posting. "Does the whole world really care about what I just said?"

    5. Re:Japan is still pretty backwards in some ways by F.Ultra · · Score: 2

      We are talking about Japan here, they have practically no robberies.

    6. Re:Japan is still pretty backwards in some ways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Personal cheques do not exist in Japan and I'd be more afraid of getting killed by Godzilla than being mugged for my wallet.

      No one gets paid in envelopes of cash unless they work for a small family business.

      I used to get travel costs reimbursed in cash but that ended about 2 years ago.

    7. Re:Japan is still pretty backwards in some ways by Russ1642 · · Score: 2

      I'm in my thirties and I haven't been paid by cheque... ever. It's always been direct deposit.

    8. Re:Japan is still pretty backwards in some ways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you are a paid employee in Japan, your income tax is withheld directly from your salary. You don't even need to file a tax return unless you have source of income other than your primary employer.

      Also, direct deposit is quite common at least among large organizations. Even part time workers get paid by direct deposit. I don't have experience or knowledge of smaller organizations though.

      Disclaimer: I am Japanese, but I haven't worked in the country for about 10 years now. My comment is based on my experience, so it surely is outdated. Cursory search on the web also indicates a lot of Japanese now consider cash payments largely outdated as well as security risk. That said cash payments can still be found at smaller companies and in certain industry (such as movers and construction workers).

    9. Re:Japan is still pretty backwards in some ways by alta · · Score: 3, Interesting

      which is why I always try to address the email AFTER I have written. Keeps me from accidentally sending something incomplete or something I would totally regret sending at all.

      --
      Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
    10. Re:Japan is still pretty backwards in some ways by kaatochacha · · Score: 2

      "cash in hand jobs done as a teenager"..
      Perhaps "cash-in-hand" would better explain your point. Unless you had a tough teenage job career.

  2. Makes sense by kruach+aum · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They also still use faxes for similar reasons impenetrable and unfathomable.

    1. Re:Makes sense by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Informative

      They also still use faxes for similar reasons impenetrable and unfathomable.

      It's not hard to understand. Rather than signing documents with a signature the Japanese use unique stamps, hand made so that no two are quite the same. Everyone has a stamp with their name on. Stamping documents is seen as a way to say "I have checked this" or "I endorse this", and because you can't stamp an email or text message they print, stamp and fax documents.

      In the west signatures are becoming less important as people move to use email for formal communication. We still sign letters but emails are considered equivalent for many purposes. In Japan there are now "electronic stamps" that create a "secure" (not really) PDF with an image of the user's stamp burned into it.

      As for telegrams, I think it must just be nostalgic value. In the UK if you live to 100 you get a telegram from the Queen, because that's tradition. Certain events are marked with a telegram, the same way as certain events are marked with champaign or a cake or a card.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Makes sense by JanneM · · Score: 4, Informative

      Stamping documents is seen as a way to say "I have checked this" or "I endorse this", and because you can't stamp an email or text message they print, stamp and fax documents.

      I'm working in Japan, and while I almost never get or send a fax any more (it must be years now), it's decently common to send and receive PDF scans over email. In fact, sometimes you need to print out the scan, add your stamp, re-scan and send it back. I do - want to print a reference copy for myself anyhow - but I suspect some people simply add their stamp graphic to the document directly.

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
    3. Re:Makes sense by Demonantis · · Score: 2

      Here in Canada faxing is still common industries that do international business for the exact reason that emailing PDFs doesn't work. Some countries simply don't have reliable internet services. Telegram services probably still exist world wide since they are legally binding unlike email. Its one of those funny quirks about the legal system. Maybe people would have less problems cancelling with Comcast if they sent notice through telegram.

    4. Re:Makes sense by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2

      Can you imagine the number of dit-dah combinations you'd need to memorize for a minimum of 2000 or so kanji?

      You'd probably use a short sequence for each of the brushstrokes and compose Kanji like from them. There's an input method (Cangee? Something like that) that works like this with a QWERTY keyboard. From 26 brush strokes, it can compose any Kanji and is apparently the fastest way of entering Kanji on a computer, although it takes a while to learn.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    5. Re:Makes sense by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      Here in Canada faxing is still common industries that do international business for the exact reason that emailing PDFs doesn't work. Some countries simply don't have reliable internet services. Telegram services probably still exist world wide since they are legally binding unlike email. Its one of those funny quirks about the legal system. Maybe people would have less problems cancelling with Comcast if they sent notice through telegram.

      It's not really a funny quirk, when you realize that telegrams generate a lot of records.

      First, you compose a telegram, and a record of you sending that telegram is noted. Then the company sends the telegram to the other end, where both ends make a record that it was transmitted at what time, and on the receiving end, that it was received - what was received at what time, and then on delivery - what was delivered when to whom.

      That sort of record keeping makes telegrams "more legal" since if a misleading message was sent, it's easy to tell did it originate at the sender, the receiver, or was it messed up along the way.

      After all, other media can be mangled and no one is exactly sure where it got screwed up. You attached a signed PDF and it gets mangled somewhere - you're not sure where. Maybe you signed the wrong document. Maybe someone screwed it up in the middle (known-prefix attacks are the holy grail in cracking hashes).

    6. Re:Makes sense by Ogive17 · · Score: 2

      If they used hiragana (phonetic) it would be quite simple. I believe there are just 71.

      My wife is Japanese and her family name is so rare that almost no one would know how to pronounce it by reading the kanji. Common names like Yamamoto can be read literally, my wife must always include the hiragana with her name.

      --
      "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
  3. What's your preferred method of communication? by Dins · · Score: 4, Funny

    You've probably never heard of it.

  4. Japan is still pretty backwards in some ways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Implying that cash isn't a superior method of getting paid.

  5. So sorry to inform you by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 3, Funny

    Upcoming Slashdot maintenance STOP Aug 15 5 to 6 PM Eastern STOP beta.slashdot.org still useless during that time STOP

  6. $4.30? by fuzznutz · · Score: 2

    $4.30 for 25 characters? That makes text messaging seem cheap here.

    1. Re:$4.30? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's about the rate for Hallmark greeting cards here. I imagine the telegram in Japan has similar cultural significance.

    2. Re:$4.30? by alexander_686 · · Score: 2

      If I had to guess it is a quasi-legal thing. People probably want some type of assurance that their message had been delivered.

      I worked in a US Bank and we were still sending out telegrams in 2002. The telegram served kind of the same function as certified mail. We could confirm that the message had been received on the other end. We were conducting "urgent" business (generally business that needed a turnaround time of 1 to 3 business day) with older cliental (e-mail was not assured).

  7. Digital stamping by tepples · · Score: 2

    you can't stamp an email or text message

    You can't stamp a text, but you can stamp an e-mail. Use any OpenPGP app to create a key pair, which has the property that any message encrypted with one half can be decrypted with the other half. This one half is your private key and the other half you make public. To stamp a digital message, first take its hash value, and then encrypt that with your private key. Then anyone else can verify your stamp by decrypting it with the public key and comparing it to the hash value of the message. Japanese video game console maker Nintendo, for instance, uses this method on Wii, DSi, 3DS, and Wii U software as a digital version of the Official Nintendo Seal.

  8. Might even be pragmatic sometimes by Sockatume · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Quite aside from tradition, which is great, there are situations where you need to send a message to a physical address. Maybe the occupant doesn't have a phone or email, or you don't know their contact details, or whether they even have a phone or email. If that message has to get there within three hours rather than overnight, then the $4.30 rate is pretty competitive with getting an express courier to carry a post-it note.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  9. Re:beta.slashdot.org STOP by Sockatume · · Score: 2

    We've decoded part of that beta invitation... except it doesn't look like it was an invitation. It looks like it was a warning.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  10. Japan Telegrams are great. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When I was married, we received a handful of telegrams from friends and colleagues.

    All were delivered as exquisite display pieces, with the message in a frame and everything. Very moving. This is what 'Telegrams' are for, special or official things. I will never forget it either.

  11. Black Adder Reference by Nahooda · · Score: 5, Funny

    Black Adder:
    To Mr. Charlie Chaplin, Sennet Studios, Hollywood, California. Congrats stop. Have found only person in world less funny than you stop. Name Baldrick stop. Signed E. Blackadder stop. Oh, and put a P.S.: please, please, please stop

    Chaplin's answer at end of episode:
    Twice nightly filming of my films in trenches: excellent idea stop. But must insist that E. Blackadder be projectionist stop. P.S. Don't let him ever... stop

    --
    Sigs suck!
  12. My Grandfather told me by Truth_Quark · · Score: 4, Funny

    That when he heard his brother and wife had had their fifth child he sent a telegram that went: Congratulations Stop

  13. why STOP in telegrams? by JigJag · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hey Slashdot, does anyone knows why telegrams are peppered with the word 'STOP'? Was there no punctuation mark to use a period?

    --
    "The hallmark of humanity is the ability to move beyond sensory inputs" - Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
    1. Re:why STOP in telegrams? by Translation+Error · · Score: 2

      Hey Slashdot, does anyone knows why telegrams are peppered with the word 'STOP'? Was there no punctuation mark to use a period?

      Apparently, when telegrams were in widespread use, four letter words were free but punctuation cost extra.

      --
      When someone says, "Any fool can see ..." they're usually exactly right.
    2. Re:why STOP in telegrams? by gman003 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Morse code did not originally have punctuation. A period is also referred to as a "stop" or "full stop", so they would just use S-T-O-P in the place of a period.

    3. Re:why STOP in telegrams? by rossdee · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The word STOP was free, but other small words still cost, therefore they were often left out.

      At the end of the 20th century, the Universal House of Justice wrote emails that sounded like telegrams.

  14. Re:25 characters is too much for Haikus! by timrod · · Score: 3, Funny

    Seventeen isn't enough STOP
    For a haiku in English STOP
    Not even counting stops STOP

  15. There is a place for the Morse telegraph by davidwr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The non-wireless Morse telegraph using only 19th-century technology (plus modern conveniences like plastic-insulated wires) is a fun educational tool for places like museums that reflect the era when telegraphy was widely used.

    It's also a fun educational tool for children's camps which specialize in either the history of that era or which specialize in STEM and which have a historical component.

    The same can be said for semaphore signaling, "hand-crank" telephones, and even "tin can and a string" telephones.

    Wireless telegraphy is still used by amateur radio operators and other hobbyists, alongside more modern "digital modes" like packet radio. Because of its very low bandwidth, Morse Code, particularly the computer-controlled "slow code" that is used on very-narrow-bandwidth transmissions in the sub-600KHz bands can typically get a message through in high-noise or low-effective-transmitting-power situations where other methods, such as "phone" (i.e. voice communication) or other digital modes can't.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  16. Real Morse Code based "telegram" service by McFly777 · · Score: 2

    If you really want to send a "telegram", but don't need reliable (i.e. guaranteed) delivery. You can still have your message sent by Morse Code, internationally, and it is free!

    You just have to find your friendly neighborhood Amateur Radio operator. The main Ham radio organization in the US is called the ARRL, Amateur Radio Relay League, because they do exactly that, relay telegram style messages around the country and world, just for the fun of it.

    OK, the ARRL does a bit more than that. They also lobby congress, manage the exams, etc., but that is the basis of their name.

    --

    McFly777
    - - -
    "What do people mean when they say the computer went down on them?" -Marilyn Pittman