https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/the-floppy-disk-refuses-to-die-in-japan-laws-that-forced-the-continued-use-of-floppies-have-finally-hit-the-chopping-block Skip to main content (*) ( ) Open menu Close menu Tom's Hardware [ ] Search Search Tom's Hardware [ ] RSS US Edition flag of US flag of UK UK flag of US US flag of Australia Australia flag of Canada Canada * * Reviews * Best Picks * Raspberry Pi * CPUs * GPUs * Coupons * Newsletter * More + News + PC Components + SSDs + Motherboards + PC Building + Monitors + Laptops + Desktops + Cooling + Cases + RAM + Power Supplies + Peripherals + Overclocking + 3D Printers + About Us Forums Trending * Best of CES 2024 * Ryzen 8000G * RTX 40-series Super * 14th-Gen Raptor Lake * PCIe 5.0 SSDs When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works. 1. PC Components 2. Storage The floppy disk refused to die in Japan - laws that forced the continued use of floppies have finally hit the chopping block News By Mark Tyson published 28 January 2024 Officials won't ask for CD media either. * * * * * * * Comments (11) Floppy disks for sale (Image credit: Amazon listing) Floppy disks can finally make their way across the digital equivalent of the River Styx and reach the land of eternal slumber. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has abolished any requirement for applicants to use this ancient clicking and buzzing magnetic media when filing official documents. Until last week there were about 1,900 official governmental application procedures that stipulated businesses must submit floppies or CD-ROMs (specifically) containing supplementary data. The Japanese government indicated the floppy disk's days were numbered back in August 2022. At the time a government minister openly mused "Where can you buy floppy disks these days?" He went on to tell reporters that the rules stipulating specific media to accompany official form submissions would be changed quickly. Removing the necessity to be able to work with legacy removable storage formats like floppy disks (and CD-ROMs) from Japan's bureaucracy will surely come as a relief to all concerned. IBM shipped the first floppy diskettes in 1973 - over 50 years ago. We don't know when floppy disk mechanisms ceased production but Sony, the last floppy media maker, stopped making diskettes over a decade ago. Floppy disk drive in a PC 3.5-inch floppy disk drive built-in a desktop PC (Image credit: Future) The Japanese government might take some time to update the hundreds of official procedures that require specific media like floppies and CDs to be submitted, or it could push ahead with immediate changes - it isn't clear from the source. However, in 2022 we noted that there is still a viable floppy disk business operating in the USA. This singular remaining business supports clientele ranging from the avionics and healthcare to embroidery segments - as well as hobbyists and retro computing folk. Tom Persky, owner of US-based floppydisk.com, admitted that the end of his floppy business was in sight. In 2022 he said there were about four more years left before he thought the floppy disk business would dry up. Persky was still receiving about 1,000 disks a day in the mail for recycling. At the time of writing, as well as batches of new-old-stock 3.5-inch disks, Persky sells 50-packs of tested recycled disks at $19.95. If the 1.44MB DS/HD floppies are too modern for your gear, 720MB DS/DD media is also available (for a premium). Stay on the Cutting Edge Join the experts who read Tom's Hardware for the inside track on enthusiast PC tech news -- and have for over 25 years. We'll send breaking news and in-depth reviews of CPUs, GPUs, AI, maker hardware and more straight to your inbox. [ ][ ]Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands[ ]Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors[Sign me up] By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Mark Tyson Mark Tyson Social Links Navigation Freelance News Writer Mark Tyson is a Freelance News Writer at Tom's Hardware US. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason. More about storage SupremeRAID SR-1000 Entry-level GPU RAID card enables mind-bending storage speeds -- 80 GB /s of throughput from eight SSDs with SupremeRAID SR-1001 Best Hard Drives Hard drive density advances face diminishing returns -- 30TB+ drives gain just 6.6% capacity with SMR: Report Latest Screenshot of Inkbox's functioning Excel CPU from the YouTube video on its creation. Functional 16-bit CPU built and runs in Excel, 3Hz processor includes 128KB of RAM, 16-color display, and a custom assembly language See more latest > See all comments (11) [ ] 11 Comments Comment from the forums * vern72 I can't imagine how many floppy disks it would take to store even a single modern document. Besides, what can we use as the save icon now? :LOL: Reply * Alvar "Miles" Udell I feel for the people who are going to be tasked to now move all the information stored on floppy disks and CDs into the cloud. Reply * Alvar "Miles" Udell vern72 said: I can't imagine how many floppy disks it would take to store even a single modern document. Besides, what can we use as the save icon now? :LOL: Dozens of Word, Excel, and PDF files can fit on a 1.44mb disk if they're all text. According to Office-Watch: Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is a famously large book at 565,000 words. In Microsoft Word, it becomes about 1,800 pages in a 1.2MB .docx file. And a typical PDF scan (at 300x300) or save-as-PDF is 100kb or less typically, so multiple documents could easily fit onto one diskette, though I imagine official procedure was to limit them to probably one per diskette for loss prevention. Reply * CelicaGT Timely article. Just found a box of unused floppies in the basement whilst looking for other useless junk. Unlike the article picture though, just boring black. Reply * why_wolf Ah Japan. Our Japanese customer at work is demanding we send them signed paper copies of our invoices now. Reply * GustavoVanni Hey Mark, there's a typo here "720MB DS/DD", it should be 720KB or 720K. Reply * ombudsmandem Floppy Sensei must live on Reply * Neilbob I fondly remember the shelves of eye-burningly, brightly coloured floppy disks. It was almost enough to make up for them going squiffy if they passed within 2 miles of the magnet inside a large speaker. Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration there... Edit: Downloading Baldur's Gate 3 on Steam was tiresome with my internet. Perhaps a version on 1.44mb floppy disk would have been more convenient. Would only have needed about 90,000 of them. Reply * greenreaper GustavoVanni said: ...a typo here "720MB DS/DD", it should be 720KB or 720K. That's why there's a premium! Reply * Lamarr the Strelok IDK how much data a floppy can hold but the floppy icon has been used for saving games in a lot of games over the years. It's sorta cool to me for some reason. 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