Farewell to Floppy disk: Japan pulls the plug on a tech relic unknown to Gen-Z

Japan, one of the technologically advanced cities which is considered very organised and structured has been using historical technology for a very long time. Remember Floppy disks? A small black (majorly) square gadget, which was being used to store data in the 90s (as per my memory), was still being used in this country.

The Japanese government has finally announced that they are getting an upgrade and will be getting rid of this ancient technology. Government officials have used floppy in the offices for ages, and it was reportedly stated that this storage technology from the system for the last 2 years, has finally got off the shelf.

Floppy was used in the 1990s

Yes, we are talking about Floppy Disk in 2024. This output storage technology was used in various parts of the world- from America to India in the 1990s. After the popularity of the CD i.e. Compact Disk increased in 1998-99, the use of floppy disk started to decline ever since. But recently it was discovered that the government department of Japan was still using one of the outdated technology and Japan's Digital Minister Taro Kono announced on June 28, 2024, the government has won the battle against floppy disks.

Japan made a law in 2022 for not using Floppy disks and CD-ROM in the government systems, but it took about 2 years to remove the floppy disk usage from the system. However, CDs are still being used in Japan's government systems. Talking about new technology, now most of the files are transferred through cloud storage or microSD card.

Gen-Z has not heard the name

A study was conducted in 2018 which found that children between the ages of 6 and 18 years of age do not know anything about Floppy Disk. Gen-Z does not even know its name. However, floppy disk storage technology is still mentioned in the curriculum of many countries.

Launched in 1971

Floppy Disk was first launched in 1971. However, commercial floppy disks were first used in 1972. Generally in the size of 8-inch, 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch floppy disks have been used for storing files ranging between 80kb to 200Mb. The 3.5-inch HiFD was launched in 1998-99 and can store files ranging from 150 to 200MB.