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Tech Kono Taro declares war on floppy disks

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thomas

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Digital minister Taro Kono, currently on a crusade against fax machines, has found another foe: he's declared war on floppy disks – and faces opposition from bureaucrats. Some 1,900 government-related procedures, such as submitting applications and other documents, still require floppy disks.



Kono told reporters this week that his agency would be reviewing the use of floppy and other disks "swiftly", adding that the modernisation push had the support of the prime minister, Fumio Kishida. Japan is not alone in hanging on to floppy disks long after most businesses and public bodies deemed them outmoded. The US air force only replaced the floppy disks it had used to manage the country's nuclear arsenal in 2019, almost a decade after Sony stopped manufacturing them. After he was made digital affairs minister in a cabinet reshuffle earlier this month, Kono joked about the task of dragging Japan's bureaucracy into the digital age. "C'mon, there is no analogue thing left in our remarkably advanced society," he tweeted in response to a comment about his appointment. "Oops, my fax machine is jamming!"

At least he has a sense of humour. :LOL:

 
Governments seems to be the worst at staying with the times. There are lots of reasons for this, and some of them really can't be argued with. They have to ensure that a new system/technology is reliable, secure, not a fad that will disappear in a couple years, have to plan the migration path from whatever came before, tend to have a truly massive environment to migrate, and have to deal with politics relating to which companies get the contracts, budgets, and which technology to move to.
 
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