Japan’s government bids farewell to floppy disks
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Japan’s government has finally scrapped rules mandating floppy discs for digital submissions
If you picture Japan as a hub of high-tech futuristic cities, you might be surprised to learn that until recently, citizens were required to submit certain digital documents on floppy disks and CD-ROMs. However, that is no longer the case.
Last week, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced the removal of the requirement to submit digital documents using physical media. Taro Kano, Japan’s Minister for Digital Transformation, declared his “war on floppy disks” in August 2022, according to ARS Technica. Until the recent change in the law, nearly 2,000 government procedures mandated the use of floppy disks, CDs, and Minidisks for document submission by citizens and businesses.
The ministry’s announcement states that it has amended 34 ordinances to remove the need for floppy disks. Some of these ordinances were associated with regulations concerning quarrying, energy, and weapons manufacturing.
IBM introduced the first floppy disks in 1971, marking a revolutionary advancement in technology. These disks simplified the process of loading software and updates onto the large mainframe computers prevalent at the time, quickly becoming the dominant storage medium. However, these early floppy disks were bulky, measuring approximately 20 centimeters across.
In 1984, IBM launched the high-density floppy disk for the PC, capable of holding 1.2 megabytes of data, a considerable amount for that era. Just two years later, in 1986, the company introduced the 3.5-inch floppy disk form factor, which is typically what comes to mind when someone mentions “floppy disk.
A single image captured on your phone today could surpass the 1.44 megabyte capacity of a 3.5-inch floppy disk. With the introduction of rewritable CDs in the 1990s, the popularity of floppy disks began to decline until they became nearly obsolete by the 2010s. However, they are not entirely obsolete even today, as certain industries such as medicine, aviation, textiles, and plastic molding manufacturing still rely on them due to legacy systems that continue to use this technology.
However, Japan stood out as an exception, with a significant portion of the country, particularly the public sector, continuing to rely on floppy disks. It’s not unusual to find modern business laptops equipped with floppy disk drives and CD/DVD drives. This reliance on older technology may eventually fade away as the country catches up with the new millennium, a transition that began approximately two decades later than in other parts of the world.
