By the second year of Taisho (1913) there are 2,000 switchboard operators in Tokyo to handle a daily volume of 680,000 calls. The young operators are unable to keep pace with the growing number of calls, and are overwhelmed with complaints that they are always too busy and make too many mistakes. Buoyed by prosperity and profitability following the end of World War I, companies, banks and other private enterprises install a rapidly growing number of private switchboards and offer higher wages to attract experienced operators. This only serves to further increase the confusion at general switchboards and often only fourteen- or fifteen-year old trainees are left to operate the equipment. The public begins to call for automated switchboards.

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