Hello Page was NTT's personal name telephone directory with a white cover, listing subscribers' names, numbers, and addresses alphabetically. It paired with the yellow "Town Page" (business directory by industry).
Dating back to Japan's 1890 telephone launch, Hello Page listed about 60 million personal entries at its peak, delivered free to every household. It was an essential daily tool for finding phone numbers and checking neighborhood residents.
Rising privacy awareness caused opt-out rates to surge. The directory was exploited as a targeting list for phone scams and telemarketing, with elderly victims particularly affected. Listing rates dropped from 80% to under 10%. NTT announced discontinuation in 2021, with the final edition in October 2023 ending approximately 130 years of history.
The discontinuation symbolizes the privacy-convenience tradeoff. While one reverse lookup method disappeared, so did the mass personal data exposure risk. Since the 2023 discontinuation, number lookups shifted to NTT's "104" directory assistance (a paid service) and online number search services. 104 itself closed on 31 March 2026, and the yellow Town Page went with it, ending NTT's general printed directories. Fureai Annai, the free directory service for people who cannot use printed directories because of visual or upper-limb disabilities, and the Braille directory both continue.