A relic of the past that absolutely must be removed from the landscape. This is how Tarō Kōno, Japan’s digital minister, sees the floppy disk. In a tweet published on Wednesday, August 31, 2022, the person concerned promised to purge the Japanese administration and companies of this ancient computer data storage medium still widespread in the land of the Rising Sun.
To this end, the Minister intends to abolish all government procedures, that is, about 1,900 regulations, which oblige the State and companies to use diskettes, as well as a series of obsolete tools: the fax or the hanko stamp, a traditional stamp necessary to formalize official documents such as marriage contracts in particular.
Reluctance among the population
Admittedly, when it comes to cloud storage and external hard drives, the use of the floppy disk is an anachronism in a country as technologically advanced as Japan. However, the Japanese archipelago struggles to shed old technological habits adopted several decades ago. Its inhabitants continue to make significant use of old-fashioned technologies such as CD-ROMs, MiniDiscs or even faxes, in particular to carry out administrative procedures.
In this context, the government faces the hostility of a segment of the population still attached to these old customs. In addition, a series of legal obstacles hinder the mass adoption of modern technologies within the Japanese bureaucracy, reports a note published on Tuesday, August 30, by the Japanese Ministry of Digital. However, the working group in charge of developing solutions to eliminate the floppy disk plans to examine provisions to relax existing laws.
archaic practices
As Bloomberg explains, this crackdown on floppy disks received the full support of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. At a press conference, the two politicians promised “review these practices quickly pointing out that it was about the meaning of the story.
Japan is not the only nation struggling to phase out the floppy disk. According to Bloomberg, it took the US Department of Defense until 2019 to announce the discontinuation of its use in certain systems related to the US nuclear arsenal.
Source: BFM TV
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