With over 1,000 restrictions mandating their use, citizens were nonetheless required to submit documents to the government using the antiquated storage devices until last month.
However, according to Digital Minister Taro Kono, these regulations have now been abandoned.
Mr. Kono “declared war” on floppy disks in 2021. Nearly three years later, he declared on Wednesday, “We have won the war on floppy disks!”
Since taking over the position, Mr. Kano has made it his mission to do rid of outdated technologies. Additionally, he had earlier promised to “get rid of the fax machine”.
Japan, which was formerly regarded as a digital powerhouse, has recently fallen behind in the global.
For example, fax machines are still preferred in offices over emails; past efforts to ban these devices from government offices were shelved due to opposition.
Floppy disks were referred to as a “symbol of an anachronistic administration” by one user on X, the former name of Twitter, amid the extensive discussion surrounding the revelation on Japanese social media.
That’s so old-school. I suppose they’re just a bunch of elderly folks,” another commenter on X said.
Some remarks were more sentimental. One user remarked, “I wonder if floppy disks will start appearing on auction sites.”
