Japan is finally giving up floppy disks

If you’re 20 years old or younger, there’s a good chance you don’t even know what a floppy disk is. And while there are many different variations of the floppy disk, the 3.5-inch version is likely to be the most recognizable. While most of the world has long since abandoned floppy disks in favor of CDs, DVDs, flash drives, and even SSDs, it turns out that Japan was still using floppy disks until recently.

A new era begins

News comes from Reuters, who reported that the Japanese government has finally «eliminated the use of floppy disks in all of its systems». As you can imagine, this is a huge step forward for the country, and was made possible by the efforts of the Japan Digital Technology Agency, which has repealed more than 1,000 regulations related to their use. The Japan Digital Agency was established just a few years ago with the sole purpose — to promote the country’s digital initiatives. This may seem surprising, as Japan is known as a technological Mecca, but the country’s internal processes lag far behind other developed countries, and some government agencies still rely heavily on fax machines for day-to-day operations.

At the time, Japan’s digitalization efforts have been a huge success.

And while ordinary citizens will likely never see the underbelly of this huge process, they will surely encounter the slow pace and complexity associated with literally handling paper documentation. Of course, eliminating the use of floppy disks is a huge victory for Japan, but there are certainly more challenges ahead as the country seeks to integrate more technology into its government and civilian sectors.

At the same time, the country’s government and civilian sectors are still struggling to integrate more technology.