Tech Kono Taro declares war on 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!"

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