FINALLY: Japan declares victory in 20-year ‘war on floppy disks.’

Japan’s government has declared victory in a 20-year war to eliminate the widespread use of floppy disks.

The move is a key milestone in the Japanese government’s painstaking efforts to modernise its old-school office practices, with fax machines still ubiquitous in many departments.

“We have won the war on floppy disks on June 28!” Taro Kono, the digital minister, who has been vocal about wiping out fax machines and other analogue technology in government, said on Wednesday.

A charismatic figure with 2.5 million followers on Twitter, Mr Kono formerly headed the defence and foreign ministries as well as the Covid vaccine deployment, taking up his current role in August 2022 after a failed bid to become prime minister.

The Digital Agency was set up during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 when a scramble to roll out nationwide testing and vaccination revealed that the government still relied on paper filing and outdated technology.

Last year, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a piece headlined, “Here are 10 ideas San Francisco can import from Tokyo to save downtown.” So perhaps the above news might encourage a bit more modernization in the Bay Area: San Francisco’s Train System is Still Running on Floppy Disks.