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Does Anyone Still Fax in 2026?
Which countries still use fax – and why?
In 2026, Japan’s ministries process millions of documents by fax daily, Germany’s federal government still operates 1,400 fax machines, and South Korea’s National Assembly takes bomb threats by fax – because email leaves no paper original to forensically trust. These aren’t holdouts who missed the memo. They’re some of the most tech-fluent governments on earth, and each has decided fax still solves a problem nothing else does. This page is the country-by-country tour: where fax persists, and the surprisingly specific reasons it does.
Latest country reports
Fresh dispatches on where fax is still the default channel
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Britain’s grid operator was still faxing safety data. Ofgem finally wrote it out.
Britain’s National Energy System Operator was still faxing safety-adjacent data inside its control centre. Ofgem deleted ‘fax’ from the Grid Code in 2025 – because BT is switching off the PSTN.
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Cancelled Federal ‘Axe the Fax’ Program Gets New Life in Quebec
Canada spent nearly a decade and hundreds of millions trying to replace fax in prescriptions. The federal program was cancelled. Quebec is now reviving it provincially, without the fees.
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Germany’s new digital health law names a date for the end of the fax
Germany approved GeDIG on 16 July 2026, setting autumn 2029 as the exit for the doctor’s-office fax. This time, a replacement rail comes with it.
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Fax and Telegram in the Same Sentence: Inside New York’s AI Red-Tape Review
Governor Hochul’s Executive Order 61 asks New York agencies to modernize fax submissions. In the same sentence, it flags telegram as an obsolete channel.
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Germany’s church data overhaul quietly bans the fax machine
Germany’s reformed church data law took effect in March 2026, and fax machines are on the kill list alongside private laptops and weak passwords.
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Germany’s Baden-Württemberg Keeps 1,400 Fax Machines During Digital Push
Germany’s Baden-Württemberg maintains 1,400 active fax machines across twelve ministries while pursuing digital transformation. Legal requirements trump modernization.
Where fax still rules – country by country
Six countries, six different reasons fax refuses to die. Pick one.
Japan
Japan retired the floppy disk before it retired the fax. When the Digital Agency tried to do both, ministry workflows pushed back. Hospitals, banks and city halls still send by fax – not because Japan can’t do email, but because the signed, paper-trail original is the document that legally matters. Read the ministry pushback story →
Germany
Germany’s federal ministries still operate 1,400 fax machines in 2026, even after a decade of digital-first rhetoric. The legal status of a faxed signature, GDPR risk on every alternative, and a procurement culture allergic to new vendors all keep the dial tone alive in the Bundestag basement. See the Bund’s 1,400-machine count →
South Korea
South Korea’s National Assembly takes its bomb threats by fax. It’s not nostalgia – for adversarial communications, a fax leaves a tamper-resistant paper original that email can’t. The same logic keeps fax inside Korean ministries, courts and hospitals long after the rest of the office stack went cloud-native. The Seoul Sunday bomb-thread story →
United Kingdom
The UK was supposed to be done. The NHS banned new fax purchases in 2018, ministers set a sunset, and then Northern Rail was caught faxing into 2024 anyway. Deadlines keep slipping because the receiving end – a magistrate, a referring doctor, a council legal team – hasn’t moved. Why Britain’s fax farewell keeps being deferred →
Croatia
In 2022 a Croatian minister proudly described fax as the country’s cutting-edge inter-ministry channel – and meant it. Smaller EU states often run the same calculus: fewer compliance moving parts, fewer migration projects, and a piece of paper everyone in the building already knows how to file. “Cutting-edge” in Zagreb, explained →
Australia
Australia’s hospitals still fax referrals because the alternative – pulling every clinic, pharmacy and aged-care home onto a single secure messaging standard – is the harder problem. Until the receiving end goes digital, the sender keeps a fax line plugged in next to the printer. Inside the Australian healthcare fax conundrum →
Need to send a fax to one of these countries?
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Got a fax to send to one of these countries?
The reasons Japan, Germany and Korea kept their fax lines are the same reasons your fax will land. No machine, no subscription. Just send it.
