Japan decides it's time to stop using floppy disks, report says

• Japan's digital minister wants to end the use of floppy disks, BBC News reported.
• Taro Kano tweeted that regulations would be changed to permit the use of online services.

Japan has declared war on old-fashioned tech solutions including floppy disks and CDs after a government committee found they were still being used to submit applications and other forms in almost 2,000 instances, BBC News reported.

Taro Kano, Japan's digital minister, hit out against their continued use despite far more effective solutions coming available in recent years. Japan's Digital Agency is now set to change regulations to permit usage of modern online services, Kano tweeted this week.

The floppy disk was invented in 1971, according to IBM, and gained popularity during the 1980s as the main way to store and share information and run programs. The storage disk was phased out in the 2000s in favour of CDs, DVDs and eventually USB sticks.

Poor digital literacy, conservative outlooks and bureaucratic culture have been cited as reasons why Japan, despite creating advances such as the compact disc, has yet to completely leave outdated office solutions in the past, the BBC reported.

"I'm looking to get rid of the fax machine, and I still plan to do that," Kano told a news conference this week, the BBC reported. "Where does one even buy a floppy disk these days?," he asked.

The government attempted to start phasing out floppy disks last year, a decade after Sony stopped producing them. Tokyo's city government started opting for online storage formats last year.

Japan is not the only country to recently call for an end to the use of outmoded technology in its offices. Last year Germany announced plans to stop using fax machines after it was found that the federal government was using more 900 such machines, Politico reported.

The pandemic highlighted how many parts of Germany's healthcare system still use handwritten lists, printed spreadsheets and faxes to process and send data, DW reported.

Japan's digital ministry did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.