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Japan abolishes floppy disks in government

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Translate from : Japan afskaffer floppy-diske i regeringen
Japan finally removes floppy disks from all systems, marks milestone in modernization of bureaucracy. Digital Minister Taro Kono declared victory over floppy disks on June 28th!
By Maria
3 jul. 2024 11:44 am
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The Japanese government has finally eliminated the use of floppy disks in all its systems, two decades after their heyday, reaching a long-awaited milestone in the campaign to modernize the bureaucracy.

By the middle of last month, the Digital Agency had scrapped all 1,034 rules governing their use, except for an environmental tightening related to vehicle scrapping. "We have won the war against floppy disks on June 28th!" Digital Minister Taro Kono, who has been outspoken about wiping out fax machines and other analog technology in government, told Reuters in a statement on Wednesday.

The Digital Agency was created during the 2021 COVID-19 pandemic, when a scramble to roll out nationwide testing and vaccinations revealed that the government still relied on paper filing and outdated technology. A charismatic figure with 2.5 million followers on X, Kono previously led the defense and foreign ministries as well as the COVID vaccine rollout, taking his current role in August 2022 after a failed bid to become prime minister.

However, Japan's digitization efforts have encountered several problems. A contact tracing app flopped during the pandemic, and adoption of the government's My Number digital identification card has been slower than hoped due to repeated data mishaps.

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