Footnote [57]:
When the use of e-mail started spreading in Japan, its first users were mostly computer programmers. They were young and free to talk with fellow professionals of other firms -- which was not usual custom among company employees in those days without e-mail. When a small firm of computer software programming received a big job, its news was flashed via e-mail and recruited fellow programmers from other firms. This initiated a fluid job market in Japan, and hence started to "open" its society.

Hundreds of Japanese has recently sent angry e-mail messages to their Japanese Prime Minister to bring down his cabinet member for his misconduct <Business Week, October 6, 1997, Page 144) -- an example of the effective use of e-mail in Japan.