Microsoft outage forces Japan back to fax machines as Outlook and Teams fail

A global Microsoft outage disrupted services including Outlook, Teams and Copilot, forcing Japanese companies to resort to fax machines and halt routine operations on Friday. The disruption affected over 70 countries, with Japanese government systems, universities and firms like Credit Saison reporting issues. Microsoft said restoration efforts were slow and ruled out a cybersecurity breach as the cause. The outage exposed Japan's heavy reliance on Microsoft, used by over 78% of surveyed companies. It also impacted other tech firms and users in Australia and India, with more than 430 million people using Microsoft 365.