To ensure no one asks, 'Does the Tokyo Metropolitan Government still use fax machines?'

Recently, the reduction of fax machines in government agencies has become a hot topic, and as part of the promotion of the 'Five Less' initiative, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has been working on 'fax-less' operations since last June.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's track record for going fax-less went from a 23.1% reduction in June 2020 compared to the same month in fiscal 2019, to a 94.8% reduction by the end of June this year, showing that the initiative is progressing at an astonishing speed in just one year.

Therefore, this time, we asked Yasumichi Ota, the Digital Reform Section Chief of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Structural Reform Promotion Team, to report on the fax-less initiatives at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

How the fax-less initiative began at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government

Regarding COVID-19 infection reports, fax machines were used for reports from hospitals to public health centers and from public health centers to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. When the number of infected people surged initially, it became a topic of discussion that the use of fax machines for business caused bottlenecks in the operations of public health centers. (*Currently, reports from medical institutions are received electronically.)

In addition, when promoting telework, the need to go to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government office to send faxes or confirm receipt became an issue. We even received reports that staff members were sometimes standing in front of multifunction printers almost all day long to print or send and receive faxes.

Triggered by these events, we began efforts to reduce fax usage starting last June. First, to grasp the actual situation of fax usage, we started by organizing the number of cases by tracing logs from multifunction printers and telephone line records, and by conducting interviews with each bureau within the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

How is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government promoting the fax-less initiative?

Last September, as one of the 'Core Projects' to be led under the 'Structural Reform of Tokyo Metropolitan Government,' we added 'fax-less' and 'touch-less'—which became necessary measures during the COVID-19 pandemic—to the 'Three Less' (paper, hanko, and cash) initiatives we had already been promoting, and launched the 'Five Less Thorough Promotion Project' to work as a whole government to promote the reduction.

The initiatives at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government were advanced based on three major policies.

First, for tasks that previously used faxes, each bureau reviewed them to reduce usage, such as replacing them with digital tools like email.

Next, in addition to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government reducing fax usage itself, we asked the parties (organizations and businesses) that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government deals with for cooperation in switching from fax to email.

However, we found during the process that among the tasks using faxes, there are circumstances where the other party (Tokyo residents, companies) cannot respond unless it is by fax, so it became clear that it was also necessary to address such 'digital divides'.

Therefore, this is a major feature of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's initiative, but even for tasks where it is difficult to respond without a fax, we decided to utilize the functions of multifunction printers to digitize both sending from and receiving to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government thoroughly, thereby reducing the use of paper faxes.

Specifically, for transmissions from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, we utilize the functions of multifunction printers to send electronic data from PC terminals directly to the recipient's fax machine. Regarding incoming faxes from residents and businesses to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, we are changing the settings on our equipment to receive them as electronic data rather than on paper, thereby eliminating paper-based fax transmission and reception.

By doing this, in addition to our paperless initiatives, we reduce the time and effort staff spend going to multifunction printers to collect paper, aiming to shift toward innovative work that leads to improved quality of service in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

Fax transmission can be digitized!

While the setup method varies depending on the manufacturer of the equipment used, you can connect a computer to a multifunction printer or similar device and configure the so-called PC-FAX function (paperless fax function) to send data using telephone lines.

By utilizing this function, it becomes possible to send electronic data such as Word, Excel, and PDF files via fax directly from a computer without using paper.

Since you can perform tasks without physically being in front of a fax machine, this becomes a fax usage method suitable for the telework era.

Fax-less goals

Last October, as part of our 'Five-Point Thorough Elimination Policy for DX Promotion,' we decided to set annual numerical targets for going fax-less.

At the beginning of our deliberations, we had set a 90% reduction (compared to fiscal year 2019) as the goal for fiscal year 2021, but we thought, 'If we are going to do it, let's aim for 100% elimination,' and considering cases where it might be necessary to use a traditional fax in an emergency due to equipment failure, we set 98% as the target.

We set a 60% reduction as an interim target for fiscal year 2020, and we cleared it with an 84.4% reduction.

And as of the end of June, the initiative is accelerating, reaching 94.8%.

Specific initiatives for going fax-less at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government

First, we decided to formulate a reduction plan for each bureau within the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and proceed with the initiatives.

Then, even when it became necessary to proceed with reductions, problems arose such as cases where it was difficult to eliminate faxes due to the circumstances of the other party, or not knowing what methods to use to eliminate them.

Therefore, we established a support system for the various bureaus within the Tokyo Metropolitan Government that are actually reducing fax usage, such as by sharing best practices for going fax-free.

Specific best practices include cases where fax numbers were removed from websites, seating charts, business cards, email signatures, etc. to prevent unsolicited incoming faxes from external parties and to raise awareness of the initiative both inside and outside the government. Other cases include creating usage logs to understand the actual situation, such as the number of faxes and their purposes. Furthermore, for subsidy and authorization-related documents that were previously handled via fax for correction requests, there were cases where they were migrated to email where possible.

In addition, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Structural Reform Promotion Team visualizes the reduction status by bureau within the Tokyo Metropolitan Government on a dashboard every month and presents it within the government to support the efforts of each bureau.

The future of going fax-free at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government

I believe that the reason the fax-free initiative progressed at such an astonishing speed in just one year is thanks to the various bureaus within the Tokyo Metropolitan Government that shared the sense of crisis regarding "structural reform of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government" and pushed the initiative forward. I would like to express my gratitude here.

Furthermore, since there are still departments that use paper faxes, we will work together to examine the issues those departments are facing and aim to achieve our goal within the fiscal year by promptly advancing the transition to electronic sending and receiving.