We’ve written before about how China’s growing middle class is buying more stuff that’s made in America.

Turns out, the same thing is happening in Mexico, which buys more U.S. stuff than China.

Who knew?

theatlantic:

Japan: The Country Where 59% of Households Still Have a Fax

For most industrialized nations, the arrival of e-mail quickly heralded the beginning of a very slow decline for fax technology. But for a mix of reasons, Japan hung on. First, there’s language: Early word-processing software couldn’t work with kanji, Japanese characters, so handwriting (and therefore fax) was the best way to transcribe and send messages electronically. Additionally, Japanese document seals — used much like a signature — are often required for paperwork. Finally, high-speed Internet has remained costly in Japan, pushing much of the communication we do online to either mobile or … fax.

Read more. [Image: &_yo/Flickr]