By YOSHIKA UEMATSU/ Staff Writer
April 8, 2026 at 07:00 JST
Fax machines are still actively used at public elementary and junior high schools across the country. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
More than 70 percent of public elementary and junior high schools use faxes while 91 percent still require “hanko” personal seals despite the government’s accelerated digital transformation in school administrations, a survey showed.
“Priorities for digitalization are different in each region,” said an official of the education ministry, which conducted the survey. “It is important to move forward with the change as we assess the situation.”
The nationwide survey was conducted in November and December 2025 and received responses from 28,049 schools, or 98.6 percent.
The rate of schools using fax machines fell by 5.1 percentage points from the previous academic year to 71.7 percent, while the ratio of schools using official seals on documents dropped by 1.9 percentage points.
However, the progress is far from sufficient for the government to meet its goal, set in 2023, of eliminating fax machines and hanko seals at all schools by March 2026.
The ministry explained that school officials communicate with many private business operators using fax, while they mostly use seals on report cards, career path questionnaires and other documents for parents and guardians.
It seems it is not entirely up to school officials to abolish faxes and seals.
According to the survey, at least half of the schools think that three specific digital transformation measures are “greatly” effective in improving working conditions.
Up to 84.2 percent of them implement a system under which notifications of absence are accepted through mobile devices; 70.5 percent use cloud services to conduct surveys with parents and guardians and perform other tasks; and 17.2 percent use generative AI services for school duties.
Other “effective” measures taken by a small number of schools include: using cloud services for arranging schedules with parents and guardians (18.2 percent); and accepting documents from parents and guardians through cloud services (19.9 percent).
“(Digitalization) is shown to be effective in tasks associated with coordinating liaison with parents and guardians,” the ministry official said. “We hope it will improve the situation further.”
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