It’s 2022 and Japan is still using floppy disks?

What? Japan experienced to declare war on floppy disks? The country’s digital minister, Taro Kono, publicly stated this on Twitter. According to the minister, the Japanese government has way too several organizations that need individuals to submit forms and programs through previous products such as floppy disks, CDs, etc. There are as lots of as 1900! Now, they are shifting the guidelines, deprecating floppy disks, and allowing absolutely everyone post on the web. In 2022, floppy disks have extended been the tears of the situations. A dignified designed country, known for labels these types of as the electronics marketplace, robotics and even cyberculture, is still employing this thing?

Floppy disks are however alive in Japan

Certainly, you are not mistaken. In the Japanese federal government, there is still a need for small business partners to transfer details working with old-fashioned storage media this sort of as floppy disks and CDs. Recently, there have been several incidents of floppy disk reduction in Japan, which proves that this is true. For example, on December 27 previous yr, the Japanese Metropolitan Law enforcement admitted that they had dropped the personalized facts of 38 citizens. These citizens used for public housing in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward, and the govt necessary to affirm with the law enforcement no matter if the applicants were affiliated with a criminal team. During the study, they were transferring applicant data on floppy disks. Unexpectedly, the floppy disk was unintentionally missing, and the applicant’s private data was also lost.

As before long as the incident arrived out, netizens all above the world had been dumbfounded, and some even suspected that it was fake news. Of study course, some Japanese netizens also expressed their shock. They didn’t count on that their country’s governing administration agencies are nevertheless working with this variety of antique. Besides governments, floppy disks are also closely used by the banking program. A Nikkei news report past 12 months pointed out that Yamagata Bank alone has far more than 1,000 customers using floppy disks to transfer employee income data in just a thirty day period.

Of training course, most of these customers are the government and modest and medium-sized enterprises, especially the govt. A handful of days back, an business in Japan done a little survey of 300 persons aged 15 to 29. It turns out that practically 20% of younger people today use floppy disks. Of course, they are seriously “using” them. In contrast, Chinese publish-00s really do not know substantially about floppy disks…

Japanese have a little something to do with floppy disks

This product or service was born in 1971. At that time, it was nevertheless a whole 32 inches. Having said that, for advantage, the dimensions was eventually diminished to 8 inches by IBM. It is the famous Japanese enterprise, Sony, that has genuinely carried it forward. In 1981, Sony released the basic 3.5-inch disk for the 1st time, and it was extensively employed in output. In 1984, Apple’s very well-identified MAC had a 3.5-inch floppy disk generate.

By the 1990s, floppy disks have been all the rage, and in 1996 there were being 5 billion floppy disks in use. But quickly, the easily damaged floppy disk with only 1.44MB of memory was immediately replaced by more substantial and a lot more reputable merchandise (these types of as USB flash drives, etcetera.).

Sony stops making the all-time favorite

Having said that, again in 2011, Sony finally stops making floppy disks. Now, eleven yrs later, Japanese modern society is even now so reliant on floppy disks, it’s possible Sony executives didn’t hope it. Floppy disks are smaller in memory and reduced in performance, so why they are not abandoned? The motive, some regional netizens feel, is mainly because the floppy disk is more secure. Its storage room is extremely tiny, and most viruses are larger sized than the disk can accommodate.

Of training course, there are also far more succinct strategies-

Due to the fact it is rarely employed, even if it is picked up, it is difficult for the other social gathering to come across a specific examining gadget. In the close, it can only slide again on the governing administration and institutions. But maybe extra importantly, numerous buyers by themselves are hesitant to transform their practices.

The Japanese forms has usually been far more insistent on the use of floppy disks. A authorities employee dependable for the administration of community cash has consistently stressed the trustworthiness of the floppy disk to the Nikkei, stating that it “has nearly in no way been harmed or dropped info.”

Not just government bureaucrats. There are also specialized engineers in the monetary industry who pointed out that they have been making an attempt to persuade customers to modify storage media 20 a long time in the past, but they could not persuade them to say nearly anything. For assistance agencies these types of as financial institutions and governments, if some shoppers insist that mailing floppy disks is much more safe than community transmission, as company providers, they can only be “downward compatible” and hold the corresponding machines. As a final result, floppy disks have been “surviving” in Japan to this day.

Floppy disks are uncomplicated to discontinue

Some persons even now take into consideration realistic factors and suggest to abandon floppy disks. For example, the discontinuation of the floppy disk reading through gadget will make it unattainable to process the knowledge. Current banking institutions experience that the price of looking at and returning the previous disks is incredibly high. Some financial institutions have now moved away from it, moving knowledge to other on-line storage formats. Also, some authorities agencies are also commencing this electronic transformation, even though they might not be totally discontinued until eventually 2026.

Soon after getting workplace, Taro Kono, the resolute Minister of Digitalization, has been urging his colleagues in public to “walk into a developed society”. Lastly, in the past two days, the word “declaration of war” was officially employed on social networking websites to begin a comprehensive procedure of discarding these disks. The Electronic Business office will force for extra administrative methods to be online rather of sending knowledge by mailing disks, CDs, U disks, and so on. In addition, they will urge departments and agencies to self-study and program to situation far more distinct policies by the finish of the year.

Antiques like flip phones are equally popular

It seems that just as the Japanese get actually previous, they also love to stay in the past. Floppy disks are not the only ‘antique’ nevertheless in use in Japan. For example, some smaller and medium enterprises and governing administration organizations are however sending paperwork by fax alternatively of E-mail. When somebody will make an e-commerce supply, they have to stamp the seal of each and every individual in cost on the checklist in the courier. In addition, the keep track of is accustomed to applying the old VGA interface, and the notebook insists on employing the network cable interface to accessibility the Internet…This predicament is not unusual in Japan.

Also, the internet websites of some international organizations change their designs to look like the last century as soon as they get there in Japan. For instance, Yahoo, an essential neighborhood portal, is absolutely in the model of the 00s. Station B, the Japanese brother station niconico, even now has the taste of several a long time ago:

Though the aged flip telephones are pretty much obsolete globally, not in Japan. There are a number of new flip equipment on the market just about every yr from providers like Sharp, KDDI and others. In schools, academics over the age of 40 hardly use smartphones. They all use flip phones about their necks, which they obtain fairly effortless. In addition, the school place of work is also reasonably “original”. As of 2017, there was no electronic training course variety process, but a paper application for course range.