flawless victory after several years of struggle
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Despite the fact that floppy disks are no longer produced (except perhaps by some manufacturers in China, about which little is known), there is a demand for them. And not only among users with very old PCs or manufacturing companies with machine tools and other equipment where data is entered through a floppy disk drive.
No, just a couple of years ago, an entire country needed them. We are talking, of course, about Japan. Only recently, the public sector of the “Land of the Rising Sun” was able to finally get rid of the legacy of past years. What's going on?
Well, how can I abandon them, they are so good!
In Japan, floppy disks continued to be used until now, despite all the government's statements that “we are about to get rid of floppy disks.” And only in 2024, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry lifted the requirement to attach floppy disks to the package of official documents for any of the government procedures. And there were about 1,900 of these procedures, mind you. The applicant for each of them had to provide additional data on a laser disk or floppy disk.
Recently, Japanese government agencies announced that they had completely abandoned the use of floppy disks in internal systems. They also stopped requiring citizens to provide data on obsolete storage devices. It is worth noting that the Japanese company Sony has not produced floppy disks since 2011. Nevertheless, the requirement remained. The fact is that it was necessary not only to issue a decree stating the abandonment of floppy disks, but also to change the current legislation in the country.
And it contained more than hundreds of different provisions that mentioned floppy disks as an integral attribute for providing data by citizens to government agencies. A special Digital Agency of Japan was created, which was able to rewrite the legislation, canceling over 1,034 regulations that mentioned floppy disks.
The Japanese government announced that floppy disks were running out of stock back in 2022. At that time, the head of Japan's Ministry of Digital Reform asked the media a rhetorical question: “Where can you buy floppy disks these days?” No one makes them anymore, so you can only get this storage medium on the secondary market.
Now he has declared: “We have won the war against floppy disks.” The official’s name is Taro Kono, one of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s most prominent politicians, and a well-known critic of bureaucratic inefficiencies due to archaic practices. Most notably, the fax machine and the hanko seal, which remains necessary for signing official documents. The official tried to limit the use of both when he was minister of administrative reform from 2020 to 2021, but they are still widely used.
But, by the way, faxes have not yet been defeated. This, however, concerns not only Japan, but also some other countries.
Not only Japan
Yes, some of the largest companies in other countries still depend on floppy disks. One of the largest rail systems, which operates in San Francisco, is entirely dependent on floppy disks. We are talking about the local train control system (San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, SFMTA), which was developed back in the 90s of the last century.
Of course, it can be re-equipped, but it will take time and significant funds. And the system cannot be interrupted for a minute, otherwise a collapse may occur. According to the head of the SFMTA, the system needs to be changed, because sooner or later the old hardware may refuse to work – then the railroad workers will have huge problems.
But on the other hand, replacing all of this is not so easy. The system itself was developed back when hard drives were not used everywhere. In the 90s, they were already used almost everywhere, but the infrastructure of the railway system itself was designed on the basis of even older hardware. At least, that's what the head of SFTMA says, although many do not believe him.
Moreover, experts believe that since we are talking about computers without hard drives, then perhaps all this works not on 3.5-inch floppy disks, but on older ones – 5.25-inch ones. They, mind you, recently turned 40 years old.
However, the head of SFMTA claims that a global failure can happen, but it is an unlikely event. The system is stable now, problems will only arise if the diskettes get damaged, and at some point there is an emergency failure. It is worth noting that the service life of the system according to the original design was about a quarter of a century. But now no one is officially talking about an upgrade or a complete replacement of the infrastructure. “Everything works – and that's fine.”
If all the hardware and software were to be changed, the employees of the San Francisco train control system would need about 10 years and several hundred million dollars. The organization cannot afford either of these at the moment. And the search for a contractor, even a theoretical one, is not underway yet. In general, this whole situation can be compared to the plot of the ancient Greek legend about the sword of Damocles.
Have you conquered floppy disks or are you still working with them?
What is this anyway?
We've already won, hurray!
No, floppy disks are invincible, we can't do it.
