Newshot
Account

Japanese media: When Microsoft 365 went down, many businesses had to fall back on fax machines

Source: IT之家 Published: Business & Funding 中文 Microsoft
AI summary

On the morning of November 13, many employees in Japan found Microsoft 365 inaccessible after clocking in and turning on their computers, forcing them to reschedule meetings and disrupting their work. Many Japanese companies rely on Microsoft's digital infrastructure — a Keyman's Net survey last year found more than 78% of respondents' companies use Microsoft products — and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary 尾崎正直 confirmed that government information systems were affected, while major credit card issuer Credit Saison and universities including Kyushu University and Waseda University also reported disruptions. Some workers said they had to switch to fax machines to send routine updates normally sent as PDFs, with one X user saying "analog technology is reliable," while others expressed anger over the resulting loss of productivity.

Translation(model translation, not the source's own text)

Japanese media: When Microsoft 365 services went down, many companies had to bring fax machines back into use

IT Home, November 15 — According to The Japan Times, on the morning of the 13th local time, many employees in Japan clocked in and were about to turn on their computers to start work when a prompt popped up on their screens saying Microsoft 365 was inaccessible. Many had to reschedule meetings and appointments, and their work was disrupted.

A middle-aged new colleague was asked by his boss for the original of a fax and answered "It's at the client's" — the truth turned out to be this
A middle-aged new colleague was asked by his boss for the original of a fax and answered "It's at the client's" — the truth turned out to be this

One user posted on Platform X: "I couldn't open Outlook, and I panicked for a moment... I contacted my boss, and was told to stay home today." Another user wrote: "All the companies in our group rely heavily on Microsoft systems... the only thing we can do right now is go to the production floor and clean the coffee machines."

IT Home learned from the original report that many Japanese companies rely on the digital infrastructure provided by Microsoft. A survey by Keyman's Net last year showed that more than 78% of respondents' companies use Microsoft products.

Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary 尾崎正直 has confirmed that Japanese government information systems were affected by the outage. Major credit card issuer Credit Saison issued a notice stating that due to a system failure in an external service, responses to requests received through the inquiry form will be delayed. Multiple universities, including Kyushu University and Waseda University, also reported that the service disruption affected their IT services.

Some Japanese workers were delighted at being unable to work, but others expressed anger over the resulting loss of productivity, stressing that fax machines are a reliable means of business communication. One user said on Platform X: "Microsoft's services are down and emails can't be sent, so we have no choice but to switch to fax to send the regular updates we usually send in PDF format. Analog technology is just reliable."

One social media user joked: "I thought this was simply heaven because I couldn't receive a single email. Turns out it was just Microsoft's services going down, so I was actually just queuing at the entrance to hell."

Ironically, the Japanese government tried to phase out fax machines as early as 2021, but faced strong opposition from bureaucrats. At the time, some even argued that fax is more secure than email.

Related articles

  • Microsoft apologizes for global service outage: underlying issue resolved, unrelated to cyberattack
  • Microsoft: No indication that nationwide U.S. flight groundings are related to the M365 outage
  • Microsoft Outlook and other services suffered a widespread outage today; affected enterprises can apply for fee credits
  • Microsoft 365 suffered a large-scale outage lasting more than 10 hours; the Japanese government had to switch to phones to maintain work
  • Microsoft 365 core services suffered a massive global outage: Outlook, OneDrive, and Teams all affected, gradually restarting and recovering
  • Microsoft Office 365 A1 retired: 100TB of basic storage for education to be discontinued starting 2028; free A0 student edition does not include Teams and email

The translation is machine-generated and individual terms may be off. Nothing is rewritten or cut; the original is authoritative.

Published by IT之家
This site only summarises and aggregates; copyright stays with the original author. Headlines and summaries follow the source — where they differ, the original wins.
Read the original ↗