Japan officially declared victory in the war on floppy disks

When you think of Japan, you probably imagine the world's leading multinational technology corporations, ultra-modern bullet trains or self-cleaning toilets. But along with that, Japan is also a country famous for its conservatism in many aspects. For example, government agencies still use floppy disks or CDs to handle administrative procedures, at a time when everyone in the world may even consider cloud storage as a thing. apparent.

In Japan's current laws, there are about 1,900 provisions requiring the use of outdated storage media. There are even regulations requiring data storage using cassette tapes and minidiscs (small optical discs).

In an effort to transform and perfect e-government, Japan is trying to eliminate this outdated storage technology. According to a Reuters report, the world's fourth largest economy has finally declared victory in the 'war' to eliminate the use of floppy disks in the system of public administrative agencies, by eliminating all A total of 1,034 regulations govern the use of this type of storage, complemented by a limited set of environmental rules regarding media recycling.

The Japan Digital Agency, established during the COVID-19 pandemic to promote Japan's digital infrastructure, completed the campaign mid-last month, after efforts to Nationwide testing and vaccinations show that the Japanese government is still using outdated technology and paperwork.

'We won the war on floppy disks on June 28,' Japan's digital affairs minister Taro Kono announced. The use of floppy disks for data storage will end, and data will be sent online such as via cloud computing services.

Floppy disks rely on magnetic storage to read and write data. They were quite popular during the 1970s and 1990s, and were mainly used to transfer data between computers that were not connected to a network.

Floppy disk technology began to decline as internet-connected computers and other storage methods became more popular. In 1998, Apple became one of the pioneering companies moving towards a future without floppy disks when it launched the iMac G3 model.

Apple's success has led to a series of other large technology companies also joining this movement in the following years. In 2001, leaked internal documents revealed that Intel wanted to stop producing floppy drives, PC World stopped supplying them in 2007, and Sony, with about 70% of the global 3.5-inch floppy disk market, also announced its end. discontinued all production and sales of floppy disks in 2010

However, floppy disks are not the only paradox in the application of technology in Japan. When Microsoft officially killed Internet Explorer (IE) last June, it also caused a headache for the Japanese government and businesses to find alternative solutions because a large number of organizations and agencies are still searching for solutions. Use this outdated browser.

Lesley Montoya

Update 04 July 2024