It's the end of floppy disks in Japan

What happens when a Gen Z representative encounters a floppy disk? For those who don't know, the floppy disk (also called "diskette" or simply "floppy") is a digital memory medium of magnetic type invented by IBM and widely used between the late seventies and nineties. However, despite its overwhelming popularity during the golden age of Nokia phones, the object fell into disuse very quickly until it disappeared completely from the market when Sony, one of the last companies to produce them, ceased production in 2011. The whole world soon forgot them, except for Japan, where more than a thousand laws mandated their use in bureaucratic contexts, or so it was until a few days ago. The news comes from Japan's Minister of Digital Affairs Taro Kono in a statement to the Reuters news agency: «We won the battle against floppy disks on June 28!».

Il Post highlights how the fight against magnetic diskettes - and against the slow processes of the country's bureaucracy - began a year ago, reporting a statement from Kono himself on X in which he said he would "declare war" on the use of these devices, along with CDs, paper, and fax machines. A total of 1,034 regulations requiring the use of floppy disks have been eliminated, with the exception of a rule on car recycling. But, although the government has promoted the phasing out of these old tools, complete digitalization of bureaucratic processes may still take some time: it is estimated that about 1,900 administrative services still use fax and paper for various procedures and archiving. Nonetheless, the victory over floppies is a first milestone that has increased Kono's popularity - former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Administrative Reforms - especially on social media (he has 2.5 million followers on X), where he often uses slogans and ironic phrases, unusual among Japanese politicians. After all, Kono has succeeded in a titanic task for a country where traditional tools like hanko, personalized stamps used to validate documents, are still in use, limiting the digitalization of public administration.