Why Excel Graph Paper Has Taken Root in Japan: A Historical and Cultural Background

Japanese has a wide variety of writing systems, and Japanese people input them into computers through a very complex series of operations. Today, Japan's literacy rate is nearly 100%. Although no definitive data exists, spreadsheet software such as Excel is widely recognized as a commonly used tool in Japanese business. Within this context, Japan has a practice called "Excel graph paper" (Excel houganshi), a name coined specifically within Japan for this practice. This paper discusses, from the perspective of Japan's historical and cultural background, why this phenomenon took root, gained a name, and became visible in Japan. Similar structures have been independently confirmed in multiple countries and administrative agencies outside Japan, indicating that this is not a phenomenon unique to Japan, but rather a structural tendency that can arise from the interaction between spreadsheet software and human cognition and behavior, regardless of culture. Nevertheless, the historical and cultural pathways in Japan remain a valid hypothesis for explaining why this phenomenon took this particular form and became visible within the Japanese context.