Global Microsoft email outage disrupts governments and businesses in Japan and Australia

A large Microsoft outage has disrupted email and collaboration services for millions of customers worldwide, with Outlook and Teams among the affected products, according to live coverage from The Guardian. Microsoft has said it is seeing "positive results" in its work to restore server stability, though no firm timeline for a full fix was given in the report.

Japan turns to low-tech workarounds

Japan appears to be among the hardest-hit countries. The digital minister, Toshiharu Furukawa, said government email had become unavailable and that officials would rely on other channels, including text messaging, as a temporary emergency step. The outage also affected a shared network used by the digital agency to pass information to ministries and public bodies.

Ryosei Akazawa, the minister for economy, trade and industry, acknowledged a significant impact on the economy and said the government would monitor the situation closely. Some offices reverted to paper: the cabinet office said it would post notices on bulletin boards to inform the media about press conferences. Private companies were also affected, with a pharmaceutical firm handling orders by phone and a logistics company unable to take some online bookings. The national weather agency said its earthquake and weather warnings do not depend on Microsoft systems.

Australia monitors essential services

In Australia, Western Australia's authorities said the state was among the jurisdictions affected and that federal officials were working with Microsoft at senior levels. According to the update, Microsoft is giving priority to life, safety and government services. The Australian Medical Association said it had received no reports of hospitals or clinics being affected so far, and the disruption was described as largely limited to sending and receiving email.

What it means for technology users

The incident highlights how heavily public bodies and businesses depend on a small number of cloud email and messaging platforms. For organisations and individuals who rely on such services, it is a reminder to keep alternative contact methods available, maintain offline copies of key information, and check official service status pages during disruptions rather than relying solely on social media reports.