Japan’s government has finally eliminated the use of floppy disks in all its systems, two decades since their heyday, reaching a long-awaited milestone in a campaign to modernise the bureaucracy.
By the middle of June, the Digital Agency had scrapped all 1,034 regulations governing their use, except for one environmental stricture related to vehicle recycling.
"We have won the war on floppy disks on June 28!" Digital Minister Taro Kono, who has been vocal about wiping out fax machines and other analogue technology in government, told Reuters in a statement on Wednesday.
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a scramble to roll out nationwide testing and vaccination revealed that the government still relied on paper filing and outdated technology.
政府機構終止使用磁碟片 日本宣布大功告成
自全盛時期20年後，日本所有政府機構終於不再使用磁碟片，在政府機構現代化運動中達成期待已久的里程碑。
在6月中旬前，數位廳已廢除全部1034項規範磁碟片用途的法規，除了一項與載體回收相關的環境限制法規。
數位大臣河野太郎在聲明中告訴《路透》：「6月28日，我們打贏磁碟片戰爭！」河野太郎一直直言不諱地表示，要徹底去除政府機構使用傳真機和其他相似工具。
數位廳是在2021年COVID-19大流行期間成立，當時日本政府急於在全國範圍內推出篩檢和疫苗接種，卻發現政府機構仍依賴紙本作業和過時的科技。