In General Gaming

Japanese PSE law to become effective on April 1st 2006
PSE = Product Safety Electrical Appliance & Material)

You surely have read about that on ign, joystiq or somewhere else.
If not, here's the bad news.
Japanese government (those asses) have made a law that will become effective on the 1st of April this year. And that's no joke.
The law says that you can't sell electronic deVices that are older than 5 years.
That could mean the end for lots of so-called recycle stores that sell used and thus cheap electronics.

And the worst thing: This means no used Famicoms and stuff any more.
Man, am I pissed off.

There is lots of protest going on in Japan right now.
You can protest, too.
Write emails in English to the Japanese Prime Minister's office, to other ministers, flood the mass media (many TV stations and newspapers have English pages with mail addresses on them) with complaints. (But don't be rude and stay friendly) Maybe it helps if they are aware that even abroad their silly law isn't popular.
Or you may not have so many chances to buy used cheap hardware from
Japan any more.

Here's a homepage dedicated to this protest:

I know it's in Japanese, but...
They also have some nice . One of them is in my sig.

is there a certain reason they want to ban selling electronics over 5 years old? i don't understand

After seeing the date that it's supposed to go into effect, I started searching around because, well... the date that it's supposed to go into effect If this is so, that's not good.



Sounds like a lame excuse to me.

We're not singling out used products! Just used products!
Phew, that should hold them.

They say it's for safety, but old electronics aren't that dangerous IMHO...
I think it's the big companies who don't like to see their products sold used and for cheap. They want the consumers to buy new expensive stuff all the time.


Everything that's older than 5 years. This means a used Dreamcast is OLD? Come on. And DANGEROUS? Well, if it falls onto your head maybe. But a 360 or PS3 will be doing more damage that way.

I think that law is total crap.

And about the date.
That's no April fools' joke. Laws become usually effevtive on April 1st, which is BTW the start of the Japanese fiscal year, and the start of the university year, andsoforth...

Everything that's older than 5 years. This means a used Dreamcast is OLD? Come on. And DANGEROUS? Well, if it falls onto your head maybe. But a 360 or PS3 will be doing more damage that way

5 years isn't that old, used PS2s will be outlawed too

And about the date.
That's no April fools' joke. Laws become usually effevtive on April 1st, which is BTW the start of the Japanese fiscal year, and the start of the university year, andsoforth...

That's what I wanted to hear to confirm this, but at the same time I didn't want to hear it Hopefully this law doesn't make its way to the west. That'd be a damn shame. It's pretty much like restricting free trade.

I imagine people are going to be shipping electronics out of Japan to sell them.

This whole law seems rather imbecelic. It seems like there's some ulterior motives here. Either that, or the entire Japanese government is dumber than the Canadian school principle who thinks that Wi-Fi can cause cancer.

Sigh...man thats a stupid law. The longer this world lasts the more stupid people get it seems. Next there gonna ban used videogames

That law certainly stinks. A lot of places will lose money i'd imagine. One of the main reasons I want to go to Japan will be the oppertunity to get electronics/games consoles etc. It's not enough to put me off going entirely, but it's a bummer.

I don't get how used electronics are a danger?! What will they do next in Japan, outlaw the sale of used cars because of they are more likely to have something wrong with them and pose a safety threat. And what about all of the small family run pawn shops and electronic repair stores that will be forced to go out of buisness? Makes no sense at all...

Seems to me that its another "Government officials think they know whats best for us." law. I agree with the consensus, I don't see where the real danger of older electronics is. I mean, I've had my NES since 1987 and I haven't been severely injured due to electric shock yet. Hide the old-school gameboys. I feel sorry for all the resale shops in Japan. You wonder if the law will be repealed after a massive Japanese backlash...

When there's a massive and big enough protest there is a slight chance that the law may be repealed.

They are basically implying that they don't put out quality products (which isn't true) by giving a five year rule. Way to show faith in your products!

Do they have any statistics (to back them up) saying that a certain number people were injured due to their NES's (or other gaming systems) electrocuting them? Are the officals being paid off by the big game manufacturers? It's like this law came out of left field.

Are the video games also considered "electronic deVices" in this law?

Seems to me... this would include the consoles but not the carts? Or discs..

I guess nintendo is going to make a bundle with all those downloads if this comes true..

Like Nik said, only the consoles (hardware) and peripherals, but not games themselves. At least that's how I understood that.

They can still be sold if they are certified safe are low voltage systems, not a big problem for chain stores such as "Hard-Off" and others.

I saw a good article on it somewhere about what it really means, I'll have to "digg" it up and post it

Here's the link:

I can't understand the whole point in this business either. This only concernes Japan, right?

Depends on how you look at it.. Stupid ideas have a way of "catching on" with other people.

It would be really nice if it turned out that way.
But I doubt that every little store could issue the labels for their used products... wait... it's Japan. Everything's possible there.

I knew there was still hope. And maybe I still can buy old Famicoms when I visit Japan next time.

On yesterday.

Famiclone owners, start your gouging!

"Polystation in box, like new !!!1!!!!ULTRA RARE!!!!!!!"

I can't believe that they are really going through with that !

I love how every article I've seen on this has a whole bunch of comments from people who are sure it is an april fools joke. It's like at anti april fool.

The thing is famiclones aren't illegal are they? The copyright on the famicom has expired so any famiclones made after 2001 will still be alright for sale. 1 up for the pirates it seems.

I don't think the Famiclones are illegal. You can find them in about every game store. If they were illegal, Nintendo would surely sue those guys to bancruptcy...
That's a really good law for the pirates there.

I'll head out to the stores on April 2nd or so to see what I can find. I should probably go out the last week of March to see who is having any old hardware sales.

I envy you.

I'd also like to check out if there are any hardware sales and make cheap stuff even cheaper.

On the other hand. I got most of the stuff I ever wanted the last summer. I guess I'm ok with that.

I walked out to a couple stores this past week (car troubles) and saw no evidence of sales in any of my "junk shops" I did find a new "famulator" tiny pirate famicom in a shiny red box, but didn't buy it because I thought the $30 price was a bit much. I'm going to gauge the effect of the PSE on a boxed Neo-Geo CD system on of the shops has, it's been sitting there at 8,000 (8400 with tax) for a couple months now. I'll keep evryone updated.

In my last issue of Famitsu I got today in the mail I read that there are a lot of stores with sales of used electronics. They want to sell all their stock for cheap as fast as possible.
But perhaps they wrote this only to make people go to stores...?
Death_by_POWerpoint said that he saw no evidence for this. Please keep us updated (thanks for the info always).

Maybe they'll just sell it "under the counter".

An example of this:

I saw on TV that some stores here in the US sell this "special" sunblock (I guess they use it a lot in Europe) but for some reason it cannot be sold in the US (it's supposed to do a way better job blocking the rays that cause cancer) so these stores hide it under thier counters and customers ask specifically for it.

Good news!
At least for Nintendo fans.
Nintendo consoles are not object to this law!
The reason is simple. Nintendo consoles use external AV adapters. Consoles with AC adapters are still for sal without a problem.
Other consoles, like Sony and Sega ones, which you plug directly to the POWer source are object of the PSE law.
Good to know.
I mainly collect Nintendo stuff.

Most big used-store chains (like wanpaku, tsutaya or sofmap) have announced to stop selling used hardware targeted by the PSElaw by March 31st.

In ten years we'll probably see commercials like "the truth about big tobacco companies" about Nintendo.

(For all of the people that don't live in the US we have these annoying commercials by this "truth" group that tells the kind of converstations they had in thier board meetings like "hmmm, can we put tobacco in a fruit snack and get kids addicted?")

<breaking news from engadget>


Well, that's a relief. After months of back-and-forth, which included protests led by musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, Japan's Trade Ministry has backed down on a new law that would have limited the resale of certain used electronic gear. The government had already relaxed some of the restrictions, which go into effect on April 1, declaring that resellers of musical instruments and some other products could be exempted from the most onerous of the new rules. Now, the rules have been completely relaxed for sellers of used products -- but only with a wink and a nod. Officially dealers won't actually be selling you anything. They'll just be "renting" it. Nudge, nudge. So, go ahead and buy all the old video games, vintage synthesizers and tube amps you want from that dude in Akihabara. And if he insists that you sign a rental agreement, go ahead and do it. Trust us, he's not gonna come knocking on your door in 10 years demanding that you give it back.

That's a relief.
So you don't buy old consoles, you "rent" them and everything's fine.
I'm cool with that.

I don't think Nintendo had to do something with this law.

That is good news indeed. And the "rent" idea is clever.
I was relieved in the first place when I found out Nintendo products were exempt due to the adaptor thing as Nintendo's all i'm mostly interested in.
Now, all I need to do is get to Japan