Once considered a technology powerhouse, but in recent years, Japan has lagged behind in the wave of global digital transformation due to strong opposition to change
It is not until 2024 that Japan will officially say goodbye to floppy disks. Until last month, people were still required to submit documents to the government using these outdated storage devices. with more than 1,000 regulations requiring their use. However, these regulations have now been repealed, according to Digital Minister Taro Kono.
In 2021, Mr. Kono “declared war” on floppy disks. On Wednesday, almost three years later, he declared: “We have won the war against strangeness i floppy!” Mr. Kono has been aiming to get rid of old technology since he was appointed to the position. Earlier, he also announced that he would “get rid of fax machines”.
Once considered a technology powerhouse, but in recent years, Japan has lagged behind in the wave of digital transformation u due to strong opposition to change. For example, many workplaces still prefer fax machines over email — previous plans to take care ofThe removal of these machines from government offices was canceled due to protests.
The announcement was widely discussed on Japanese social media, with a user on X (formerly Twitter) calling the The soft fork is “a symbol of an outdated government. Another comment on X wrote: “The government still uses floppy disks? It’s so backward… I guess they’re all old people.”
Other comments were more nostalgic. One user wrote: “I wonder if floppy disks will start appearing on auction sites or not.”
Created in the 1960s, these square devices became obsolete in the 1990s as storage solutions became obsolete. more fruitful was invented. A three-and-a-half-inch floppy disk can only hold a maximum of 1.44MB of data. It takes more than 22,000 such disks to reproduce a memory card that holds 32GB of information. Sony, the last manufacturer of these discs, discontinued production in 2011.
As part of the delayed campaign to digitize the bureaucracy, Japan established the Digital Agency in September 2021, led by Mr. Kono. However, Japan’s digitalization efforts may face more difficulties than expected.
Many Japanese businesses still require official documents to be stamped with an engraved personal seal. called hanko, although the government has made efforts to eliminate them. People are gradually abandoning these seals at a “slow pace of ice melting,” according to the local newspaper The Japan Times.
And it wasn’t until 2019 that the country’s last pager provider shut down the service, with the end user dissolving thethat it was his elderly mother’s preferred method of communication.