Japan has become a nation of mobile-phone talkers, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication reported this month. More people now talk on mobile phones in Japan than on fixed-line phones; total talk time on mobile phones reached an astonishing 1.9 billion hours in 2007. That's a lot of metal and plastic against a lot of ears for a lot of time! Who would have guessed there was so much to say?

That total will perhaps come as no surprise to anyone who has recently searched for a public phone booth or wanted to use those once-upon-a-time big plastic pay phones in old coffee shops. It is, though, a shift in consciousness. Nowadays, people love to talk from wherever they are and want to stay "in touch" 24/7. The number of mobile phones were already double the number of fixed-phone lines a couple years ago. However, with an average of 2 minutes and 8 seconds per mobile call, it took a couple years for mobile-phone time to surpass "regular" phones completely.

Fashion statement, consumerist toy and social necessity, mobile phones are now considered essential by most Japanese — 101 million, to be exact, with more on the way every day. Outside of communications trade magazines, the mobile phone takeover hardly warrants column space any longer. The next generation of phone is always on the way. They are a basic part of life.

One wonders, though, what everyone has to say to each other. Are these calls part of business or casual chatting? Are most calls to clients, colleagues, friends, or family? Most people can hardly even figure out how to get anywhere without a call or two these days. One wonders, too, whether these mobile-phone conversations are taking the place of face-to-face interaction. Body language may be a human skill in decline.

Whether technologically mediated conversations are a step toward a more meaningful life or just one more sophisticated commercial intrusion into human relations is not yet clear. More and more mobile phones may prove to have no harmful social effect in the long run, although we will never know until it has already happened. Until then, of course, most people will just keep upping their talk time and being more mobile than ever. Jaa, ne!