THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS
After the clearing of the backlog of telephone subscribers in 1978 (Showa 53), the move to put the entire country on direct dialing increased in intensity. Okinawa Prefecture was returned to Japan on May 15, 1972 (Showa 47), and the line-of-sight microwave link between Okinawa and the mainland was completed on the same day. Provision of direct dialing for the entire country, including Okinawa, was achieved on March 14, 1979 (Showa 54). The last to be completed were the Tokyo Toshima exchange and the Minami-Daito and Kita-Daito exchanges in Okinawa Prefecture. The introduction of automatic telephones that started with the Tokyo Kyobashi exchange in 1926 (Taisho 15) finally completed after more than half a century.