.png)
Japan’s Minister of Digital Affairs “declares war” on floppy disks
The Minister of Digital Affairs said there are still around 1,900 government applications and forms that require outdated technology.
Japan, a country known for promoting some of the world’s most innovative and unusual technologies, is preparing to launch a full-scale “war” against the humble floppy disk.
Taro Kono, the country’s newly appointed Digital Minister, issued his battle cry on Twitter on Tuesday. According to Kono, floppy disks — along with other legacy technologies such as CDs and MiniDiscs — are still required for around 1,900 government procedures.
Kono’s promise to purge the government of 50-year-old floppy disk technology comes amid broader efforts to modernize how people in Japan submit applications and other forms. The Digital Minister said his campaign is backed by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, according to a press briefing viewed by Bloomberg.
This is not the first time Kono has targeted perceived inefficiencies weighing down Japan’s government bureaucracy. He has previously taken aim at fax machines and traditional carved hanko seals.
“I want to get rid of the fax machine, and I still plan to do it,” Kono said.
.png)
Japan may have no choice but to abandon floppy disks for purely practical reasons. Sony, once a leading manufacturer of disks, officially stopped producing them 11 years ago. Since then, most organizations have moved to more advanced storage alternatives such as USB drives and cloud services. Even the U.S. Department of Defense, which has a reputation for being a late adopter of new computing technologies, finally abandoned floppy disks in 2019 after five decades of use.
In addition to supply issues, floppy disks are becoming increasingly impractical. Modern documents and spreadsheet files are significantly larger than they were in the 1980s, when floppy disks were at their peak.