Japan, for all its technological marvels, still has plenty of inefficiencies -- these inefficiencies keep many people employed. Relevant to FT, large travel agencies still do exist (JTB and the like), as do visa processing companies.

It is interesting that the areas in which we (and I say this as a resident) are efficient, are in keeping the average time to do something in your daily (not work) life as a Japanese-city-dweller down, especially if it is something that is happening often enough.

So there's my two yen on to why this isn't done yet.