NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Electronics giant Sony Corp. and another Japanese company have jointly developed a "paper DVD" that can store five times more data than a regular DVD and could offer foolproof security.

The paper disc, which was developed in cooperation with Japanese printing firm Toppan Printing Co., can hold up to 25 gigabytes of data, five times more than the current limit of 4.7 gigabytes for a standard DVD.

Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. and Toppan Printing Co. have developed a 'paper disc' that can hold up to five times more data than current DVDs.

The disc is 51 percent paper, so it could be cut easily for foolproof data security, the companies said in a statement.

"Since a paper disc can be cut by scissors easily, it is simple to preserve data security when disposing of the disc," said Hideaki Kawai, managing director of Toppan. "Using printing technology on paper also allows a high level of artistic label printing on the optical disc," he added.

The companies said they were able to develop the disc out of mostly paper because the disc uses Blu-ray technology, a next-generation format that Sony and a few other electronics manufacturers are pushing as the high-end successor to the current DVD.

"Since the Blu-ray Disc does not require laser light to travel through the substrate, we were able to develop this paper disc," Sony said.

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The paper disc is about the same size and thickness as a regular DVD, but it can only be used in a Blu-ray disc player. A regular DVD player would not be able to play the disc, a Sony spokesman told CNN/Money.

Sony plans to introduce its Blu-ray disc players in the U.S. next year, the company spokesman said. The companies expect lower disc-production costs for the paper disc technology and it could also be better for the environment since the disc can be recycled, he added.

More details about the paper disc will be announced later this week at the Optical Data Storage 2004 in Monterey, California, the companies said.

No launch date has been set yet for this product, the Sony (SNE: Research, Estimates) spokesman told CNN/Money.