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The story
Fujifilm has announced it will ramp up large-scale production of magnetic data-storage tape for the first time in 20 years. The company plans to invest roughly ¥10 billion by fiscal 2028 at its plant in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, expanding production capacity to five times current levels, driven by growing demand for offline backups that protect data from cyberattacks like ransomware. On the 5ch thread, opinions split between worries about mold and tape degradation, comparisons to soaring HDD prices, and pushback against the idea that “analog is trustworthy,” with some pointing out that magnetic tape is still fundamentally a digital recording medium.
10/29 (Thu) 16:25 — Jiji Press
Fujifilm (Tokyo) announced on the 29th that it will increase production of magnetic tape, a medium used for storing data.
From this fiscal year through fiscal 2028, the company will invest about ¥10 billion at its manufacturing site in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, expanding production capacity to roughly five times fiscal 2025 levels. It marks the first major investment in magnetic tape in about 20 years.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Even if it molds, you just wipe it off and it reads fine
This IS the backup solution
Same goes for hard drives
Aren't HDDs getting pricier too?
You're not accessing it constantly. Even if it gets moldy, it's not really a problem (´・ω・｀)
Just record that sound as a WAV file and you won't even need the tape
Lifespan: 50 years
It'll outlive me
This is Japan — called the world's weakest country on security by the world's biggest hacker groups. What nonsense are you spouting?
Fighting attackers who use AI with "countermeasure AI" — are you seriously okay in the head?
The data itself is digital though
How many floppy disks would 4TB even take (ヽ´ω`)
The data stored on magnetic tape is a digital signal
LTO is digital, so I guess it's gotta be cassette tape after all
Low cost and long-term storage are the advantages
along with Japan's own homegrown local spec
Just leaving a floppy next to your smartphone seems like it'd wipe the data
having paper cash ready is the real move
since electronic payments could get taken down
Mohawk-and-shoulder-pads guy: "itching to go…" (a nod to Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic survivalist memes)
Prices spiked for a while but have settled down now
Not settled at all~
Tripled in price and then stayed high
https://kakaku.com/item/K0001591728/?lid=20190108pricemenu_hot
used to go for about ¥7,000
but now it's ¥14,000
CMR drives (conventional, non-shingled magnetic recording) are scarce, but that's a 10-year-old product line…
though unused units are still being sold
That's pure Showa-era retro (Japan's 1926-1989 era, now a nostalgia trend)
Never in my wildest dreams did I think it'd become a boom
It's for what's called "cold data" — source data or backups that are rarely touched. You're not accessing it every time
Just record it as a QR code
Background and key points of this topic
Magnetic tape has long served as “cold storage” for corporate systems — a medium for long-term storage of backup data that’s rarely accessed. Because tape kept offline, disconnected from the network, can still be recovered even when ransomware or other cyberattacks encrypt or destroy live data, demand for it has been climbing again in recent years. The LTO-format tape Fujifilm is ramping up production on uses magnetic recording, but what’s actually written to it is a digital signal — so the thread’s take that “it’s trustworthy because it’s analog” isn’t technically accurate. Meanwhile, rising HDD prices stem from supply-and-demand shifts in semiconductors and storage components and aren’t directly tied to this tape production increase — but the two trending at the same time has reinforced a general impression that “storage prices across the board are rising.”
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “Magnetic tape production increases for first time in 20 years — protecting data from cyberattacks — Fujifilm.”
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