TOKYO (TR) – In the ’80s and ’90s, floppy disks were the norm for storing data. However, they quickly disappeared from homes and offices with the emergence of larger capacity and faster recording media.
But in Japan, even as of 2025, floppy disks are still being used in certain industries and fields. Why has this outdated medium survived?
According to site Sumaholife-plus, the answer lies in their utilization in so-called “legacy systems” in certain industries. To move beyond these systems requires huge investments that many firms are not able to take on.

Limitations
Since their appearance on the market as 8-inch floppies in the early ’70s, floppy disks have long been established as an indispensable tool for carrying data and distributing software. However, certain limitations have caused them to become basically obsolete.
Capacity is one of them. The early 8-inch floppy disks held about 80KB of storage. Manufacturers later upped that figure to 360KB and 1.2MB. However, the medium quickly became outdated due to the enlargement of operating systems and application software, and the spread of multimedia files such as images and music files taken with digital cameras.
Slow transfer speeds is another. Writing 1MB can take 30 seconds to a minute. When handling dozens of MB of software, it can take hours to read and write data while switching disks multiple times.
These limitations led computer manufacturers to remove floppy disk drives from their products from around the end of the 1990s.
Difficulty of updating existing systems
Despite these limitations, some industries still use floppy disks.
For expensive industrial machinery and control systems that have been operation for decades, it may not be economical to replace the entire system just to update some components, such as floppy disk drives.
In addition, in fields where there are strict safety and precision requirements in place (e.g. precision machinery for manufacturing), changes to a system configuration once certified requires a recertification, which takes time and money.
For this reason, if the industrial machinery has been certified once and has been operating stably for decades, it is often preferable to continue operating the machine using floppy disks without updating the system.
For example, floppy disks are often still in use in certain manufacturing sites and research institutions, such as injection molding machines, inspection equipment and old oscilloscopes.
As a smaller example, floppy disks are still used to transfer data from embroidery machines at small companies. The reason is embroidery machines can cost several million yen, and replacing them can be a big burden for small companies.
Since even minor malfunctions are not tolerated in aircraft systems, technologies that have been confirmed to operate stably for a long period of time are prioritized, and new technologies are introduced with caution.
Aviation is another industry that still uses floppy disks. Aircraft can have a life cycle extending for several decades from development to retirement. In some cases, floppy disks that were standard at the time of design continue to be used as they are.
Similarly, floppy disks are also used by the military. In addition to being a field that requires stable operation like aircraft, they are also thought to be a reliable means of loading data in an environment isolated from external networks.
Difficulty of updating existing systems
In Japan, there have long been laws and regulations that specify using floppy disks for submitting application data in some administrative procedures. The Digital Agency changed that. The remaining regulation requiring the use of floppy disks and other recording media was abolished on June 28, 2024.
Currently, domestic production of floppy disks has ended, with only stock items circulating in the market. As a result, prices have been steadily rising. A pack of 10 disks runs about 6,600 yen. It is not uncommon for people who absolutely need them for work to search all over the Akihabara shopping district.
Emulation might be the way forward. In response to the situation, a transition to emulation systems as a replacement for floppy disks is progressing.
For example, the German Navy is considering introducing a system that completely emulates the 8-inch floppy disks used on old ships. As well, emulation products that recognize Compact Flash cards and floppy disks have also appeared in Japan.
This makes it possible to replace only the recording media with modern technology without making major modifications to the existing system. It is expected that the spread of such emulation technology will take over the “role” of floppy disks in the future.