Japan, a country known for its many innovations in the technological field, finally decided to modernize a number of its bureaucratic procedures.
It so happened that for many years, when submitting official documents to the state departments of the country, it was to use frankly outdated information to the state departments, including compact disks and even magnetic disks (floppy/flexible discs).
Back in 2022, the Minister for Digital Issues of Taro Kono called various branches of the government to refuse to use outdated forms of physical carriers. The Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry (Mati) was one of the first to start this transition.
According to the new approved norms, Mati will no longer require businesses to provide data on flexible discs, the same applies to CDs (CD). However, the complete abandonment of these formats is far away.
Kono’s team revealed about 1900 protocols in various government departments, which still requires the use of flexible discs, CD-ROM and even minidisc. Moreover, the requirements for physical carriers were applied even to key industries, such as service providers, mining operations, as well as manufacturers of aviation and military equipment.
Despite the inherent country conservatism in bureaucratic procedures, there are several main reasons why the rejection of flexible discs should finally happen and should not be delayed.
Firstly, floppy disks are becoming increasingly difficult to find: Sony, their last major manufacturer, stopped selling outdated carriers back in