Japan scrapped each regulation requiring the usage of floppy disks for administrative functions this week, catching up with the instances 13 years after the nation’s producers manufactured their final models.
The floppy disk, invented within the 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 Within the Nineties, together with the cassette tape, it was thrown into the dustbin of outdated tech.
However not in Japan. Whereas famend for its shopper electronics giants, robots and among the world’s quickest broadband networks, the nation has additionally been wedded to floppy disks and different outdated applied sciences like fax machines and money.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 shifting away from the 1900s storage gadgets, magnetic disks encased in plastic, simply two years in the past, when Taro Kono, the nation’s digital minister, declared a “conflict 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 could be time in 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 keeping with Nobuyuki Koto, one of many officers.
The city’s new database took a while to arrange, however the change was inevitable and the brand new system is speedier and extra correct, he stated.
A large spectrum of companies — mines, oil firms, retailers, liquor retailers, purchasing facilities — was certain by completely different guidelines requiring them to submit paperwork to regulators on floppy disks.
Even after Sony, as soon as a significant 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 keeping with the Digital Ministry.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kono declared victory in his conflict. 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The final rule standing was associated to the recycling of used automobiles and was repealed on June 28, he stated.
Exterior the federal government, some Japanese sectors aren’t able to let go.
Many of the conventional textile business in a bit of Kyoto, which makes gadgets like kimonos, has not up to date its expertise since adopting floppy disks within the Nineteen 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 almost 300 floppy disks, which weigh in at virtually 10 kilos, in keeping with Yusuke Murayama, a spokesman for the financial institution.
The financial institution has tried to steer the shoppers nonetheless utilizing the disks to retailer their checking account data to change codecs, telling them it might 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 just lately the USA’ nuclear arsenal did, too.
Inside the authorities, Mr. Kono’s work will not be accomplished. He has indicated that fax machines, nonetheless extensively utilized in Japan, are in his sights. He beneficial switching to e mail.
In Tsuwano, the city whose accounting division upgraded from floppy disks final yr, the workplace fax machine remains to be typically the quickest method to ship data, 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.
“Generally, individuals 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 now we have to watch out about knowledge safety.”
