Just about everyone uses e-mail today, and many of us in Japan do so in English, Japanese, and other languages as well. But anyone who corresponds in Japanese via e-mail knows that we still have a long way to go in terms of ensuring that our e-mail reaches the intended recipient both intact and readable.
With English this has never been much of a problem, but "mojibake" (garbled text) continues to confound those who e-mail in Japanese even today.
To further complicate matters, we have the additional question of message formatting to consider. Should we use plain-old plain text, HTML, or rich text? These are important questions not only for individuals but also organizations of all kinds that rely on e-mail to communicate with customers, members or affiliates.