WAIT, WHAT?!
Japan scraps every regulation requiring the use of floppy disks
Japanese businesses – from oil companies to shopping centres – had been required to submit documents to regulators on floppy disks. PHOTO: PIXABAY
JUL 06, 2024
TOKYO – Japan scrapped every regulation requiring the use of floppy disks for administrative purposes this week, catching up with the times 13 years after the country’s producers manufactured their last units.
The floppy disk, invented in the 1970s, was once a ubiquitous part of computing. Other forms of memory like flash drives and internet cloud storage have since taken over, but not in Japan.
While renowned for its consumer electronics giants, robots and some of the world’s fastest broadband networks, the country has also been wedded to floppy disks, fax machines and cash.
Japan began moving away from the magnetic disks encased in plastic just two years ago when Mr Taro Kono, the country’s Digital Minister, declared a “war on floppy disks”.
A wide spectrum of businesses – mines, oil companies, retailers, liquor shops, shopping centres – was bound by different rules requiring them to submit documents to regulators on floppy disks.
Even after Sony, once a major manufacturer of the disks for the Japanese market, stopped producing them in 2011, more than 1,000 floppy-mandating laws, ordinances and directives stayed on the books, according to Japan’s Digital Ministry.
On July 3, Mr Kono declared victory in his war. All of those regulations have been reviewed by lawmakers, undergone public comment, been voted on and struck down, he said.
Outside the government, some Japanese sectors aren’t ready to let go.
Each day, Higo Bank, on the island of Kyushu, processes nearly 300 floppy disks, which weigh almost 4.5kg, according to Mr Yusuke Murayama, a spokesman for the bank.
The bank has tried to persuade the clients still using the disks to store their bank account information to switch formats, telling them it would stop accepting them in the spring, he said.
Within the Japanese government, Mr Kono’s work is not done. He has indicated that fax machines, still widely used in Japan, are in his sights. He recommended switching to e-mail.
In the southern town of Tsuwano, the accounting department replaced floppy disks only in April 2023, said Mr Nobuyuki Koto, an official in the department, who added that he missed some things about the old system.
“There wasn’t any risk of getting hacked,” he said. “Now we have to be careful about data security.” NYTIMES
JUL 06, 2024
TOKYO – Japan scrapped every regulation requiring the use of floppy disks for administrative purposes this week, catching up with the times 13 years after the country’s producers manufactured their last units.
The floppy disk, invented in the 1970s, was once a ubiquitous part of computing. Other forms of memory like flash drives and internet cloud storage have since taken over, but not in Japan.
While renowned for its consumer electronics giants, robots and some of the world’s fastest broadband networks, the country has also been wedded to floppy disks, fax machines and cash.
Japan began moving away from the magnetic disks encased in plastic just two years ago when Mr Taro Kono, the country’s Digital Minister, declared a “war on floppy disks”.
A wide spectrum of businesses – mines, oil companies, retailers, liquor shops, shopping centres – was bound by different rules requiring them to submit documents to regulators on floppy disks.
Even after Sony, once a major manufacturer of the disks for the Japanese market, stopped producing them in 2011, more than 1,000 floppy-mandating laws, ordinances and directives stayed on the books, according to Japan’s Digital Ministry.
On July 3, Mr Kono declared victory in his war. All of those regulations have been reviewed by lawmakers, undergone public comment, been voted on and struck down, he said.
Outside the government, some Japanese sectors aren’t ready to let go.
Each day, Higo Bank, on the island of Kyushu, processes nearly 300 floppy disks, which weigh almost 4.5kg, according to Mr Yusuke Murayama, a spokesman for the bank.
The bank has tried to persuade the clients still using the disks to store their bank account information to switch formats, telling them it would stop accepting them in the spring, he said.
Within the Japanese government, Mr Kono’s work is not done. He has indicated that fax machines, still widely used in Japan, are in his sights. He recommended switching to e-mail.
In the southern town of Tsuwano, the accounting department replaced floppy disks only in April 2023, said Mr Nobuyuki Koto, an official in the department, who added that he missed some things about the old system.
“There wasn’t any risk of getting hacked,” he said. “Now we have to be careful about data security.” NYTIMES
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