Jiro Nakamura <jiro@shaman.com> (06/15/91)
Hi - Has anyone noticed that Tokyo is now fully converted to eight digit numbers? I recently phoned a friend in Japan (I'm in Ithaca) at +81 3 701-xxxx and got a hurried message that the number was now +81 3 3 701-xxxx. It wasn't until I phoned him up that I realized that the area code for Tokyo had not switched to 33 (my immediate assumption) but that all the old seven digit numbers in Tokyo now had a 3 prepended to them: +81 3 3701-xxxx. As you all know, since about last year, all new numbers in Tokyo have been eight digits with a 5 in front of them: +81 3 5xxx-xxxx. But I didn't know that they had switched to all eight digits now. Jiro Nakamura jiro@shaman.com Shaman Consulting (607) 256-5125 VOICE (607) 277-1440 FAX/Data
trebor@uunet.uu.net> (06/17/91)
jiro@shaman.com (Jiro Nakamura) writes: > Has anyone noticed that Tokyo is now fully converted to eight digit > numbers? I recently phoned a friend in Japan (I'm in Ithaca) at +81 3 > 701-xxxx and got a hurried message that the number was now +81 3 3 > 701-xxxx. The big "Year of the Sheep, Night of the Telecom Wolves" changeover occurred at 2am, Jan 1, 1991. All the old seven digit numbers got a 3 prepended to them. The "area code" is still 03. Estimates vary widely, but some pundits claim that the cost to the Japanese economy caused by the switchover (reprogramming autodialers, fax machines and the like, plus a 14% increase in the number of phone buttons pushed in the Tokyo area [which means 14% more buttons breaking, etc ..]) is in the trillions of yen, and may yet cause major damage to the Japanese economy. Planners at the phone company here are already preparing for the upcoming switchover to nine-digit local numbers, expected to occur Tuesday next... ;^) Robert J. Woodhead, Biar Games / AnimEigo, Incs. trebor@foretune.co.jp