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The story
Talent Wakako Shimazaki (53) revealed on the October 17 broadcast of TBS’s “Jinsei Saiko Restaurant” that she still mainly uses a flip phone and her home landline, and that her smartphone is “just something I own — I don’t actually use it.” Co-star Ann Nakamura was stunned, saying, “Wait, you have a phone at home?” On 5ch, since 3G service has already been shut down, commenters repeatedly pointed out that “that must be a garaho” (a flip-phone-style device that actually runs on 4G/Android), while many others shared personal reasons for keeping a landline — credibility on contract paperwork, business necessity, and peace of mind for elderly family members, among others.
Wakako Shimazaki still mainly uses a flip phone and her home landline — smartphone is “just something I own, I don’t use it”
Talent Wakako Shimazaki (53) appeared on the October 17 broadcast of TBS’s “Jinsei Saiko Restaurant” (Saturdays, 11:30 PM). She revealed that she still mainly uses a flip phone and her home landline.
At the top of the show, it became a topic of conversation that Koji Kato of the comedy duo “Gokuraku Tonbo,” who serves as MC, had bought the latest smartphone.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
They got discontinued last year
So she's lying (´・ω・`)
3G service got shut down, after all
Maybe she means a "garaho" (a flip-phone-styled smartphone)?
They still work
4G flip phones exist
https://video.fc2.com/ja/content/20220228U77Wdv4z
Old folks do better with physical buttons
They're bad at swiping
My parents' place has a landline, and honestly it really only gets sales calls
Since it's only sales calls, and my dad's hearing has gotten bad so he can't really talk to whoever's on the other end, he never picks up at all
He doesn't check the answering machine either
There's basically no point keeping the phone, but apparently just being able to call out himself gives him peace of mind, so we keep it
When he was hospitalized he said he wanted a mobile phone, so I gave him a garaho, but he's never used it once
He probably couldn't remember how to use it anyway, so even if he wanted to, he couldn't
I've got a povo SIM in it just to keep the number alive, paying a little over 100 yen every few months, but I'm scared I'll forget someday
I live alone and have a landline hooked up, but I keep the phone cord unplugged
Just throwing money away every month
Mine's permanently set to answering machine
We've got kids in elementary and middle school, and we genuinely never use it at all
For what it's worth, when I took out my mortgage almost 10 years ago, I didn't even have one by then
It's a fiber-optic phone line at 500 yen a month, but even that feels like a waste
These days most toll-free numbers connect fine from a smartphone anyway
garahos have such bad battery life they can't really replace a real flip phone
No way, on standby alone it lasts a week. Get your battery replaced
That's a 30-year-old way of thinking
I've got my smartphone set to reject any number that's not saved in my contacts
so for stuff like that I just write down my landline number
Even my late great-grandmother was using a smartphone by the end.
Just for the phone function, though.
And the handsets are expensive too
You can just pop a cheap MVNO SIM into whatever handset you like
There are unlimited-call plans too, so if you talk a lot just sign up for one of those
Handsets start in the ¥10,000s range if you don't mind used
Even used ones can be unused-condition and in great shape
Honestly, I didn't even know expensive garaho handsets existed
That's basically a subscription-rights scam
Fiber-optic phones don't work during a power outage, so there's not much reason to keep one
Although maybe it's worth having if you use a fax machine?
Calls and email still work fine. Some apps still function, others don't anymore.
It's the au Torque, by the way.
If it only lasts a week on standby alone, then it really isn't a replacement for a flip phone after all
A mid-range smartphone with decent battery life can already get about a week on standby too, these days
No, garaho phones last even longer than that
Yeah, that's exactly the kind of thing AI's good at
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Japan’s carriers phased out “3G” mobile service around 2024, meaning old-school flip phones have, in practical terms, become essentially unusable. Most devices currently sold and referred to as “garakei” (flip phones) are actually “garaho” — Android-based 4G devices with a button-style exterior but a smartphone’s innards underneath; calls and email work fine, but some apps aren’t supported, putting them in an awkward middle ground. What split opinion in the thread was whether Shimazaki’s comment was technically a true “flip phone” or actually describes a “garaho,” along with differing real-life takes on why people still keep a landline. Many commenters shared circumstances a smartphone alone can’t fully replace — credibility on contract paperwork, business necessity, peace of mind for elderly family members — while others noted that landlines these days get nothing but sales calls. A common misconception readers should watch out for is the idea that “flip phones are now completely unusable”: a 4G-capable garaho can still make calls and send email today.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Geino/Sports News+) thread “[Entertainment] Wakako Shimazaki still mainly uses a flip phone and her home landline — smartphone is “just something I own” — Ann Nakamura stunned: “Wait, you have a phone at home?”“
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