It’s taken until 2024, but Japan has suddenly said farewell to puffy discs.
People were also required to use the outdated storage devices to submit documents to the government up until next month, and more than 1, 000 laws required their use.
However, these regulations have been suddenly overturned, according to Digital Minister Taro Kono.
In 2021, Mr Kono had “declared battle” on floppy disks. On Wednesday, about three years later, he announced:” We have won the war on puffy disks”!
Since he was hired, Mr. Kano has made it his mission to completely replace outdated systems. He had previously stated that he would “get off of the telephone system.”
Japan, which was once regarded as a technology powerhouse, has since fallen behind in the global wave of online transformation due to a strong resistance to change.
For example, organizations have continued to favor fax machines over e-mail; earlier plans to get rid of these devices from government buildings were voided due to backlash.
The news was extensively- discussed on Chinese social media, with one person on X, previously known as Twitter, calling puffy disks a” symbol of an antiquated administration”.
” Floppy disks are still being used by the federal today” That’s so archaic… I guess they’re only full of old people”, read another post on X.
Some comments were more romantic. One user wrote,” I wonder if floppy disks will start appearing on auction sites.”
The square-shaped storage devices that were developed in the 1960s became obsolete in the 1990s as more effective backup options were developed.
A three and a half inch floppy device could hold only 1.44MB of information. More than 22, 000 for disks may be needed to simulate a memory keep storing 32GB of data.
Sony, the next company of the plates, ended its manufacturing in 2011.
Japan established a Digital Agency in September 2021, which Mr. Kono is in charge of as part of its tardy effort to digitize its administration.
However, it might be simpler to say than to do Japan’s digital work.
Despite the government’s efforts to eliminate them, many Japanese businesses also need standard documents that can be endorsed with sculpted personal stamps, or hanko.
According to the local news The Japan Times, people are “glacially moving away from those passports.”
And it was not until 2019 that the country’s last pager provider closed its service, with the final private subscriber explaining that it was the preferred method of communication for his elderly mother.