The pager (pokeberu, "pocket bell") was a portable wireless device that received numeric or kana text messages via radio waves. NTT launched the service in 1968, initially for business communication. The device could only receive; senders had to call the pager's number from a payphone or landline and input messages using touch-tone buttons.
In the early 1990s, pagers became a cultural icon among Japanese youth, especially high school girls. A "bell friend" (beru-tomo) culture emerged around numeric wordplay messages: "0840" (ohayou/good morning), "0906" (okureru/running late), "14106" (aishiteru/I love you). Pager subscriptions peaked at approximately 10.78 million in 1996.
Mobile phones' rapid adoption made pagers obsolete. Two-way communication and voice calling eliminated the one-way pager's advantage. NTT Docomo ended pager service in 2007, and Tokyo Telemessage, the last provider, shut down in September 2019.
The pager's historical significance lies in pioneering "anytime, anywhere messaging" - the prototype of mobile communication. Numeric wordplay culture foreshadowed emoji in mobile email and LINE stickers. The pager frequency band (280MHz) has been repurposed for digital disaster prevention radio systems. See extinct phone numbers and telephone evolution history to revisit the pager era.