The author takes a very narrow claim— that fax machines are popular in Japan— and expands it into a weak orientalist takedown of Japan’s objectively advanced society. They even go so far as to acknowledge infrastructure masterworks like Bullet trains only to discount them because of a (still globally used!) piece of office hardware that has fallen out of favor in the US tech sector. Whatever, dude…
And...fax machines are heavily used in the medical and legal professions in the US. I have a doctor's card on my desk right now that has a fax number on it, because medical records and forms often need to be faxed. Anyone who's ever had to file a worker's comp or long term disability sort of deal knows the fun of playing fax tag between the company their employer contracts that to and the doctor's office.
That's not even touching on the cult of the magic signature. A piece of paper is suddenly special because someone scribbled something that looks roughly like their name on it, even though that doesn't prove anything.
