HardwareStorage’We have won the war on floppy disks!' Japan finally declares independence from floppy mediaWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
HardwareStorage’We have won the war on floppy disks!' Japan finally declares independence from floppy mediaWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Getty Images | Javier Zayas Photography)
Unless you’re living in Japan, that is, because until a few days ago, the Japanese government was still using them for all its systems. Now, according toReuters(viaSweclockers), thanks to the efforts of Japan’s Digital Minister Taro Kono, Japan has declared victory against the aged storage device.
Floppy disks—those beautifully square, pleasurably solid, plastic-and-metal disks that I wouldn’t entirely resent the return of—were popular in the 80s and 90s for creating and distributing software. (For our younger readers, there’s a graphic of one above. Doesn’t it look lovely?)
Peak Storage(Image credit: Future)Best SSD for gaming: The best speedy storage today.Best NVMe SSD: Compact M.2 drives.Best external hard drives: Huge capacities for less.Best external SSDs: Plug-in storage upgrades.
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(Image credit: Future)Best SSD for gaming: The best speedy storage today.Best NVMe SSD: Compact M.2 drives.Best external hard drives: Huge capacities for less.Best external SSDs: Plug-in storage upgrades.
(Image credit: Future)
Best SSD for gaming: The best speedy storage today.Best NVMe SSD: Compact M.2 drives.Best external hard drives: Huge capacities for less.Best external SSDs: Plug-in storage upgrades.
Floppy disks were (nay, are) kinda cool. They work a little like cassette tapes, but with the magnetisable material that stores data on it running in concentric circles atop a spinning disk housed inside plastic casing. However, floppy disks have incredibly limited storage capacity. So, as software got more complex and capacious in the 90s, companies had to start spreading their software across multiple disks, which became increasingly inconvenient for both manufacturers and consumers.
Over in Japan, however, things panned out differently. Government regulations and systems didn’t adapt to evolving technology. For example, theBBC reportsthat Japanese workplaces “continued to favour fax machines over emails.” Over the last few years, however, Digital Minister Taro Kono has been trying to get Japan to move onto newer, better technologies.
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Kono’s efforts to move on from such outdated technologies included a 2021 declaration of “war” on floppy disks, and he’s now finally announced victory for Japan, telling Reuters, “We have won the war on floppy disks on June 28!” The specific nature of the victory? That would be the scrapping of all but one of the 1,034 regulations governing the use of floppy disks.
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