Knowing how to fax Japan from the United States on a traditional facsimile machine is easy — just enter the number as follows:
011-81-(fax number in Japan)
( 81 ) is the country code for Japan, and you must dial 011 for the international access prefix to call from the U.S. Be sure to prefix everything with a “9” if you normally do to access a line outside of your company’s phone network.
It may be necessary to insert a pause in your dialing sequence after the “011” to allow the phone network time to connect you to an exchange. This differs between fax machines, but may be a comma or “#” sign inserted into the number. Sometimes the pause is necessary for international calling.
If you receive a bad connection, you may have to lower the baud rate on your machine to ensure a noise free transmission. Give 9600 baud a try if the first attempt fails.
Dialing Japan can certainly be expensive. Faxing may take more than one dialing attempt. The cost to call a landline in Japan is often over US $3.00 per minute when dialed from another landline without an international calling plan as is available on wireless.
International Fax Choices
Another option is to make use of a fax-to-email service such as eFax or iFax. These services allow you to send unlimited international faxes simply through your regular email for cheaper than a single long distance phone call to Japan or Asia.
