Japan still uses floppy disks.
Many Japanese government agencies still require documents to be submitted or stored on disk, but the problem may end soon.
Japan’s Digital Minister Taro Kono tweeted, “There are about 1,900 government procedures that require the business community to use data carriers such as floppy disks, CDs, MDs (minidisks)… We will fix the rule by replacing them with online storage.”
Mr Kono called the government’s new move a “declaration of war on floppy disks”.
Floppy disks are long gone storage devices. See: metro
Mr Kono criticized the country’s use of other outdated technologies in a press conference midweek. “I want to get rid of the fax machine and I’ve always wanted to,” he said. Then he asked about storage devices: “Where do people think about buying floppy disks today?”
Floppy disks have been around since the 1960s, but are long since “dead” and have been replaced by more efficient storage solutions. According to statistics, up to 20,000 new disks are required for this, which corresponds to a 32 GB memory card. However, many Japanese government systems still use this type of drive and require other agencies to provide documents or store data.
Japan is still considered a technological powerhouse. However acc BBCThere are many reasons why this country is so loyal to floppy disks, such as a conservative ideology’s reluctance to change technology.
This isn’t the first time Japan has harked back to its ancient customs. In 2018, Minister of Cybersecurity Yoshitaka Sakurada caused a stir when he revealed that he never used a computer and frequently outsourced jobs to employees. In 2019, the country suspended the postal service.
Not only in Japan, in recent years floppy disks have been used in military systems. In 2016, the US Government Accounting Office (GAO) reported that the US Department of Defense still uses floppy disks in the national nuclear system. IBM Series 1 computers were first introduced in 1976. With decades-old 8-inch floppy disk drives.
Bao Lam (Consequences BBC)