Nearly two years after Japan’s Digital Minister publicly declared a “war on floppy disks,” Japan reportedly stopped using floppy disks in its government systems as of June 28.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that the Japanese government has “abolished the use of floppy disks in all systems.” By mid-June, the report said, Japan’s Digital Agency (an agency established during the COVID-19 pandemic to update the government’s technology) had “abolished all 1,034 regulations restricting the use of floppy disks, except for one environmental regulation on automobile recycling.” This suggests there is still one use the government can make of floppy disks, but the details are unclear.
Digital Minister Taro Kono, a politician who has championed technological modernization in the Japanese government, has openly declared his distaste for outdated office technology such as floppy disks and fax machines. Kono, who is reportedly considering a second run for president, told Reuters in a statement today:
On June 28th, the floppy disk war was won!
Kono announced his plan to eliminate floppy disks from government two years ago, but it’s been 20 years since the disk’s heyday and 53 years since its introduction. It won’t be until January 2024 that the Japanese government will no longer require 1,900 types of government documents, such as business applications and citizen documents, to be submitted on physical media like floppy disks or CD-ROMs.
This timeline may seem surprising, considering that Sony, the last manufacturer of floppy disks, stopped making them in 2011. As a storage medium, floppies can’t compete with today’s options, with most floppies having a maximum capacity of 1.44 MB (2.88 MB floppies were also available), and you’d be hard-pressed to find a modern system that can still read the disks. There are also fundamental concerns about older storage formats, such as Tokyo police reportedly losing two floppy disks containing information on dozens of public housing applicants in 2021.
But Japan isn’t the only government agency with a surprisingly recent connection to the technology: San Francisco’s Muni Metro light rail, for example, uses a train control system that uses software run on floppy disks, and plans to continue doing so until 2030. The U.S. Air Force used 8-inch floppies until 2019.
Outside of the public sector, floppy disks remain prevalent in many industries, including embroidery, cargo airlines, and CNC machines. We reported in January 2023 that Chuck E. Cheese uses floppy disks in its animatronics.
Resistance to modernization
Now that the Japanese government believes its reliance on floppy disks is over, attention is focused on what kind of modernization reforms it will undertake.
Despite Japan’s various technological achievements, it has a reputation for clinging to outdated technologies. The Institute for Management Development’s (IMD) 2023 World Digital Competitiveness Rankings ranks Japan 32nd out of 64 countries. According to IMD, the ranking measures “the capacity and readiness of 64 countries to adopt and explore digital technologies as a key driver of economic transformation in business, government and the wider society.”
It may still be a while before the government is ready to let go of old technology. For example, government officials have reportedly resisted moving administrative systems to the cloud. Kono urged government agencies to phase out seals in 2020, but the transition away from seals is proceeding at a “very slow pace,” according to The Japan Times.
Many workplaces in Japan also choose fax machines over email, and a 2021 plan to remove them from government offices was thwarted by opposition.
Some believe Japan’s reliance on old technology stems from the comfort and efficiency that comes with analogue technology and government bureaucracy.
