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Quick answer: To fax Japan, dial your exit code (011 from the US or Canada, 00 from the UK and most of Europe), then 81, then the Japanese number without its first 0. A Tokyo fax written 03-1234-5678 becomes 011 81 3 1234 5678 from New York. Japanese 0120 and 0800 free-dial numbers can’t be reached from abroad, and Tokyo is 13 or 14 hours ahead of the US East Coast, so a fax sent after lunch in New York lands in the middle of the Japanese night.
In Japan an office can still answer an email with “please fax it”, and plenty of people outside Japan end up doing exactly that: sending a signed form to a Japanese school or landlord, an order to a supplier, a document to a ward office.
Why a Japanese office asked you to fax
Because fax is still normal there, including in government. In 2021 the government’s administrative reform task force told central ministries to stop using fax, and minister Taro Kono pushed them to switch to email. The Japan Times reported in August 2021 that about 400 objections came back, and the exceptions that followed covered contact with members of the public and businesses that prefer fax, disaster backup, civil court proceedings and sensitive information. The landline those machines depend on is fading slowly: in the communications ministry’s 2025 survey, 53.6% of Japanese households still had one, down from 72.2% in 2016. The machines themselves are rarer: the ministry’s 2026 White Paper puts household fax ownership at 23.5% in 2025, down from 38.1% in 2016.
Dialing a Japanese fax number
Japanese numbers are written in the domestic format, with a 0 at the front: 03 for Tokyo, 06 for Osaka, 082 for Hiroshima. JETRO, Japan’s trade agency, gives the rule for callers abroad in one line: “dial your international carrier number + 81 + the number, but drop the first 0.” The 0 is for calls inside Japan only; leave it in and the fax won’t connect.
Faxing Japan, by where you’re sending from
Using a Tokyo fax number written 03-1234-5678 as the example. A Japanese landline number is 10 digits including that first 0.
| Where you’re faxing from | Dial |
|---|---|
| US or Canada | 011 81 3 1234 5678 |
| UK and most of Europe | 00 81 3 1234 5678 |
| Australia | 0011 81 3 1234 5678 |
| An online fax app | +81 3 1234 5678, or pick Japan from the country list |
| Inside Japan | 03-1234-5678 |
Not sure about another country’s exit code? The number formatter in our international faxing guide builds the full number for you.
Numbers that won’t work from abroad
A Japanese fax number can be perfectly correct and still impossible to reach from outside Japan. Check the first digits before you send:
- 0120 and 0800 (toll-free). NTT Docomo Business, which runs Free Dial on these numbers, says in its FAQ that the service works for faxes, but that calls from overseas “can’t be connected” because it’s for use inside Japan only. Ask for the office’s ordinary number with an area code.
- 0570 (Navi Dial). The same applies: NTT’s Navi Dial FAQ says an international call to one can’t be connected, even when a fax machine sits at the other end.
- 070, 080 and 090. Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications lists these as mobile numbers. You’ve almost certainly been given someone’s phone, not their fax line.
- 050. These are internet (IP) phone numbers. Whether one takes faxes depends on how it’s set up, so ask before you rely on it.
Got a 0120 number and nothing else? Look on the company’s website or letterhead for a number that starts with an area code (03, 06, 082 and so on), or email and ask for one. The free-dial line only works inside Japan.
Sending it from your phone
With Municorn Fax, a fax to Japan takes the same steps as one down the road. Pick Japan (+81) in the country list, then type the number without its first 0, so 03-1234-5678 goes in as 3 1234 5678. Scan the pages with your iPhone or Android camera, or attach a PDF. Japanese business-manners guides treat a cover sheet as standard: the date, who it’s for, your name and contact details, and the total page count. If the office gave you its own fax form, such as the request form Japan’s Small and Medium Enterprise Agency publishes, use that as the cover page; otherwise our cover sheet generator makes one in a minute. The app keeps a delivery report for each fax, which is your record that it arrived.
International faxing is included in every plan, so Japan costs the same as a local fax: $9.99 a week, $29.99 a month or $249.99 a year on the App Store (on Android, billing goes through Google Play and prices vary). There’s no free trial, but your first single-page test fax is free. Working from a computer, or want to fax straight from your email? EveryFax sends to Japan within its plans and has a two-week free trial.
Timing: the clock and the calendar
Japan Standard Time is nine hours ahead of UTC, kept by Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, and Japan doesn’t change its clocks in summer (timeanddate.com). So the gap to you shifts by an hour whenever your own clocks change.
9am in Tokyo, where you are
Useful if you want the fax waiting when an office opens.
| Where you are | When it’s 9am in Tokyo |
|---|---|
| New York | 8pm the day before in summer (EDT), 7pm in winter (EST) |
| Los Angeles | 5pm the day before in summer (PDT), 4pm in winter (PST) |
| London | 1am the same day in summer (BST), midnight in winter (GMT) |
A fax machine takes pages at any hour, so this matters less for delivery than for whether anyone reads it. The calendar matters more. Japan’s national holidays cluster into two long breaks: Golden Week at the start of May (in 2027, 29 April and then 3 to 5 May) and the New Year. Government offices are closed by law from 29 December to 3 January (Act on Holidays of Administrative Organs, Article 1). A form that reaches a ward office after it closes on Monday 28 December 2026 won’t be looked at before Monday 4 January.
Faxing Japan: what services charge
Prices from each provider’s own pages for Japan, checked in November 2026.
| Service | To fax Japan | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Municorn Fax | Included in every plan | International faxing costs nothing extra on any plan |
| EveryFax | Included in the plan | From a browser or your inbox; two-week free trial |
| GotFreeFax | US$0.29 a page, or US$0.285 prepaid | Up to 30 pages per pay-per-use fax; the free tier covers the US and Canada only |
| FaxZero | US$2.09 a fax, up to 15 pages | Cheaper than its usual international rate of US$3.63; free faxes are US and Canada only |
| Fax.Plus | Per plan, with an extra-page charge | Its rates page says some destinations “may count as multiple pages”; check Japan with its lookup tool |
| eFax | A per-destination rate on top of the plan | Its international rates page bills faxes that take over 60 seconds per minute |
Per-page and per-minute billing is where international faxes get expensive. A ten-page contract to Osaka on GotFreeFax is about US$2.90, which is cheap for one fax and adds up quickly if you’re sending every week. Our MyFax review found it “charges customers 1 page for every minute of the transmission – not for every page” on international faxes. A flat plan avoids the arithmetic.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do I dial to fax Tokyo from the US?
Dial 011, then 81, then the Japanese number without its first 0. A Tokyo number written 03-1234-5678 becomes 011 81 3 1234 5678. In Municorn Fax, pick Japan from the country list and type 3 1234 5678.
Do I keep the 0 when faxing Japan?
No. The leading 0 is only for calls inside Japan. JETRO’s guidance for callers abroad is to dial 81 and the number, “but drop the first 0”.
Can I fax a Japanese 0120 number from abroad?
No. NTT Docomo Business, which runs Free Dial, says calls from overseas can’t be connected. The same goes for 0800 and 0570 numbers. Ask for the office’s ordinary number with an area code.
How does a Japanese office fax me back?
Give them your fax number with your country code. From Japan they dial 010, then the country code, then the number: NTT East gives 010 1 212 123-4567 as its example for New York. A Municorn Fax number is a US or Canadian one, so the office dials 010 1 and your 10 digits.
What time is it in Japan?
Japan Standard Time is UTC+9 all year, with no daylight saving. 9am in Tokyo is 8pm the previous evening in New York during US summer time, and 1am in London during British summer time.
Does faxing Japan cost more than a US fax?
On pay-per-fax services, yes. In November 2026 GotFreeFax charged US$0.29 a page and FaxZero US$2.09 per fax of up to 15 pages for Japan, while both have free tiers for US numbers. Municorn Fax and EveryFax include international faxing in their plans, so Japan costs nothing extra.
Faxing elsewhere in Asia? See our guides to faxing Hong Kong and faxing Singapore. For country codes and exit codes in general, there’s the international faxing guide.
Sources
- JETRO, JETRO offices in Japan (dialing note)
- Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, telephone number types and 2025 Communications Usage Trend Survey, key points (published 29 May 2026), and 2026 White Paper on Information and Communications, chart II-1-11-1 (household fax ownership)
- NTT Docomo Business, Free Dial FAQ and Navi Dial FAQ
- NICT, Japan Standard Time; timeanddate.com, time zone in Japan
- Cabinet Office, national holidays (2026 and 2027); Act on Holidays of Administrative Organs, Article 1
- NTT East, International Calls (dialing out of Japan with 010)
- Money Forward, fax cover sheet guide (updated 30 March 2026); Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, publications request form (FAX送信票)
- The Japan Times, fax phase-out pushback (9 August 2021)
- Prices: GotFreeFax, FaxZero and its FAQ, Fax.Plus and eFax, checked November 2026
- All checked on 7 November 2026.
