Japan scrapped each regulation requiring using floppy disks for administrative functions this week, catching up with the occasions 13 years after the nation’s producers manufactured their final items.
The floppy disk, invented within the Nineteen Seventies, was as soon as a ubiquitous a part of computing. Different types of reminiscence like flash drives and web cloud storage have since taken over. Within the Nineteen Nineties, together with the cassette tape, it was thrown into the dustbin of outdated tech.
However not in Japan. Whereas famend for its client electronics giants, robots and a few of the world’s quickest broadband networks, the nation has additionally been wedded to floppy disks and different outdated applied sciences like fax machines and money.
Japan started transferring away from the 1900s storage units, magnetic disks encased in plastic, simply two years in the past, when Taro Kono, the nation’s digital minister, declared a “warfare on floppy disks.”
When he encountered a picture of a freeway billboard for an American most cancers clinic that learn, “If you recognize what a floppy disk is it might be time to your most cancers screening,” Mr. Kono responded on social media: “No, not essentially in Japan.”
Within the southern city of Tsuwano, officers within the accounting division changed its stack of floppy disks solely in April 2023, in response to Nobuyuki Koto, one of many officers.
The city’s new database took a while to arrange, however the swap was inevitable and the brand new system is speedier and extra correct, he stated.
A large spectrum of companies — mines, oil corporations, retailers, liquor retailers, procuring facilities — was sure by totally different guidelines requiring them to submit paperwork to regulators on floppy disks.
Even after Sony, as soon as a serious producer of the disks for the Japanese market, stopped producing them in 2011, greater than 1,000 floppy-mandating legal guidelines, ordinances and directives stayed on the books, in response to the Digital Ministry.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kono declared victory in his warfare. All these laws have been reviewed by lawmakers, undergone public remark, been voted on and struck down, he stated.
The final rule standing was associated to the recycling of used automobiles and was repealed on June 28, he stated.
Outdoors the federal government, some Japanese sectors aren’t able to let go.
Many of the conventional textile trade in a bit of Kyoto, which makes objects like kimonos, has not up to date its expertise since adopting floppy disks within the Eighties, stated Motoshi Honda, an analyst on the Kyoto Municipal Industrial Expertise Analysis Institute.
Every day, Higo Financial institution, a regional monetary establishment on the island of Kyushu, processes practically 300 floppy disks, which weigh in at virtually 10 kilos, in response to Yusuke Murayama, a spokesman for the financial institution.
The financial institution has tried to influence the purchasers nonetheless utilizing the disks to retailer their checking account info to modify codecs, telling them it could cease accepting them within the spring, he stated.
Floppy disks are nonetheless round exterior Japan, too. The embroidery and avionics industries use them, and till not too long ago america’ nuclear arsenal did, too.
Throughout the authorities, Mr. Kono’s work just isn’t executed. He has indicated that fax machines, nonetheless extensively utilized in Japan, are in his sights. He really useful switching to electronic mail.
In Tsuwano, the city whose accounting division upgraded from floppy disks final yr, the workplace fax machine continues to be typically the quickest option to ship info, Mr. Koto, the city official, stated. Officers fax the names of people that have died to newspaper obituary departments and use the machines to correspond with native companies.
“Typically, folks don’t discover emails,” Mr. Koto stated.
However even after lastly eliminating the floppy disks, he missed some issues concerning the outdated system.
“There wasn’t any threat of getting hacked,” he stated. “Now we now have to watch out about information safety.”
