Floppy disks were popular several years ago for storing and transferring electronic data. There are three types: 8-inch floppy disk, 5.25-inch floppy, and 3.5-inch floppy. The 3.5-inch floppy disks were widely used in the 1990s and slowly disappeared in 2000. Correspondingly, many newer computers don’t have floppy disk drives, making them an unstable storage medium.
Metropolitan Districts in Tokyo are starting to eliminate the technology. A Nikkei Asia correspondent wrote that local governments in Tokyo are just starting to give up the floppy disks. Bureaucrats were more comfortable with using diskettes as file storage for many years. However, the increasing maintenance cost forced them to abandon the obsolete technology.
Tokyo metropolitan offices have been using floppy disks to store and transfer data. As the central government tries to introduce digital services, bureaucrats start to get rid of floppy disks. For example, Minato Ward completed the transition of their payment procedures into online systems in 2019. Meanwhile, Meguro City plans to transfer all its data online in fiscal 2021. On the contrary, Chiyoda City digital transition plan will take several years to complete.
But then again, officials in Japan’s capital are still reluctant about the change. Eliminating this technology would only bring new challenges toward complete modernization pursued by the central government.
The Meguro City Transition Plan
Yoichi Ono, public funds manager for Meguro City, said that the disks “never broke and lost data.” They have used floppy disks for many years for storing financial data. Employee payrolls are saved on these floppies, and then staff will physically go to the bank to process the transaction.
Surprisingly, this system continued even after diskettes were no longer available in the market. Sony stopped making them ten years ago. Tokyo officials did not worry about this for two reasons. Firstly, floppy disks are reusable, and they have plenty on hand. Secondly, systems upgrading is not one of the priorities of the conservative bureaucrats.
In 2019, Mizuho Bank, one of the biggest banks in Japan, informed the city that it would charge 50,000 yen ($443) for the physical storage fee. The bank explained that it is no longer practical to maintain floppy disk drives, which read data from floppy disks. Bank officials said that it poses more risk of lost data compared with online banking.
The proposed allocation of an estimated additional $5,000 a year urged the officials to switch to online transactions. Yoichi Ono believes that the changes might help them work more efficiently. Each department does not have to store files in the floppy disks and carry them around when exchanging data within the organization.
What will happen in Chiyoda City?
The transition for Chiyoda District in Central Tokyo is part of the plan to revamp its internal systems by 2026. The authorities want to assist the residents in accomplishing paperwork even without going to the community office. We’re already in the 21st century, yet many people in Tokyo still have to visit the community office for things that could possibly be done online.
The city aims to improve the quality of services. It will also lessen the workload of their employees. However, the district’s digital transition plan will take years to complete. According to Chief Accountant Shogo Hoshina, many things should be considered, including minor details.
Japan’s challenges in leaving old practices behind
Despite being a leader in technology and innovation, Japan finds it difficult to achieve total digital transformation. It is because of the opposition from local authorities against the plans to modernize the current system. Just like what happened in Minato, Meguro, and Chiyoda. The conservative mindset of leaders and the society as a whole hurdles the sudden shift to new solutions.
Civil servants also opposed an attempt to get rid of fax machines. Taro Kono, the minister responsible for administrative reform, said in April 2021 that the government ministries and agencies in Kasumigaseki will switch to email. He added that it is impractical to use fax machines during the pandemic since most Japanese employees work from home. They need to return to their offices to send and receive faxes.
However, government officials defend the fax machine, claiming that it would be impossible to abolish. The officials worry about the security of their communication, contrary to the trend that major organizations worldwide communicate via encrypted messaging and email.
Likewise, the proposed elimination of using personal seals to authorize documents was also opposed by the citizens. The use of Seal or often referred to as Hanko has its deep connections to Japanese culture. It could be one of the reasons why the public is against the idea of digitizing contracts and other legal documents.
Tokyo authorities are not the only ones who took some time to eliminate the floppy disks.
The US Air Force has been using the 8-inch floppy disks to launch nuclear missiles until 2019. In June 2019, the Strategic Automated Command and Control System moved its storage component from floppy disks to a highly-secure digital storage solution. The old command center relied on 8-inch floppy disks and a 1970’s mainframe computer. Hackers cannot attack the unique system because it does not have an IP address.
Here is another proof that the archaic removable storage isn’t dead yet. It helps update aircraft information. In a report by The Register last year, Boeing 747-400 still uses 3.5-inch floppy disks to load navigational databases. Although the model was no longer available in 2009, it is still operational for some airlines.
Final Thoughts
Technology has drastically improved in terms of data storage and data transfer. From floppy disks to USB sticks to HDDs, its capacity has evolved into storing up to 2megabytes only to hundreds of terabytes of data. Then came the cloud storage that offers unlimited storage and requires less physical storage space. With this ongoing trend, most of us might think that floppy disks are gone, but they are still valuable for some users.
