Japan this week abolished all regulations that required the use of floppy disks for administrative purposes, bringing Japan right up to date 13 years after Japanese manufacturers produced their last units.
The floppy disk, invented in the 1970s, was once a ubiquitous component of computers. Other forms of memory, such as flash drives and internet cloud storage, have since taken over. In the 1990s, along with the cassette tape, it slowly fell into the dustbin of obsolete technology.
But not in Japan. While the country is known for its consumer electronics giants, robots and some of the world’s fastest broadband networks, it is also wedded to floppy disks and other old technologies like fax machines and cash.
