Japan's Gaming History Now Safe

An anonymous reader writes "The Guardian today has covered the final part of the ongoing saga regarding the Electrical Appliance and Material Safety Law in Japan. Thankfully, the law has been almost reversed allowing the continued sale of second hand electrical goods (including games consoles)." From the article: "The Japanese secondhand electrical goods market was officially estimated last year to be worth around £500m ... The government probably hoped the law would go largely unnoticed and bring a variety of benefits. By taking the money out of the secondhand market and injecting it into the market for new goods, regulation (of old products) and revivalisation (of the economy) would be achieved in one fell swoop. On paper, anyway. In practice it was rather different."

FYI

[XMilkProject]

For those that don't know, here is a little background info:

People in Japan never purchase used electronics, in fact they purchase new electronics at a pace which dwarfs American technology purchases. It's just sort of a Japanese thing... They always want the newest/best/coolest bit of technology.

There are however, many poorer countries around Japan, and there is an amazing market for these used electronics in nearby countries. For some time now there has been a massive organized sale of used electronics to other countries, creating pretty substantial profits.
This could be powered by anything from ebay to organized supply chains.

Basically the Japanese government felt like they could possibly direct some of this revenue to the electronics manufacturers, and increase the sales of new items, therefore promoting growth and new technologies, etc, etc.

The thing here to remember is that it never impacted the Japanese directly, as it is extremely rare for a japenese person to buy a used electronics item for themselves, but rather it impacted them indirectly by making it harder to profit from the resale of items.

Anyone feel free to correct me on this.........

Re:FYI

[tpgp]

that it never impacted the Japanese directly, as it is extremely rare for a japenese person to buy a used electronics item

You're right - it is extremely rare for the Japanese to buy second hand electronics - but there is one area pointed out by the article that is a notable exception (no not Games).

Thats music.

For many people a second hand guitar & amp is not just a cheaper solution, but a superior solution. Rightly or wrongly, many people prefer the sounds of older equipment.

The Worst Law Ever

[MrFlibbs]

From TFA: 'Musicians, gamers; add in a large swath of the press citing this law as simply the "worst law ever" and the government had a big problem on its hands.'

No kidding. Essentially, the law made it illegal to buy a used electronic device. The justification was that it would keep "unsafe" devices out of circulation, but that was merely an excuse to force consumers to buy new stuff instead. Japan must have one heck of a corporate marketing lobby!

The good news is that the public outcry forced the law to be struck down before it went into effect. The amazing thing, though, is that anyone (other than corporate CEOs) thought this was a good idea in the first place.

Re:Revivalization

[earthbound kid]

In case people think you're kidding, let me spell it out about the cars. In Japan, every car needs to have an inspection. The older your car, the most frequent and more expensive the inspection. After a while, it costs more to have your car inspected than to buy a new car. Thus most of the cars that you see in Japan are under 10 years old. In America, you still see a fair amount of cars from the 70s and 80s, but in Japan, you just don't at all.

My understanding is that the old Japanese cars are sold to Australia, since they're also right hand drive and relatively close.

Mod Parent Up

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm glad to see an environmentalist in these boards.

Re:Revivalization

[Half a dent]

The UK get a lot of Japanese "Grey Imports" too, Skylines and Supras being popular. Dealerships refuse to service them though but most of these cars get so modded they have few original parts beside the engine block anyway!

Re:I'm grateful...

[doctor_no]

If you libed in Japan you would know that Japan has one of the strictest recycling policies in the world. The very vast majority of electronics goods are recycled or resold (usually to other countries). Which makes sense because the cost of land for a landfill is astronomialy high.

In majority prefectures you have to dispose of electronic goods seperately from the rest of your garbage (which in turn becomes recycled). All electronic goods in Japan are required by law to have a certain percent recyclable. In addition, in Japan you have to seperate into "burnable/moeru gomi", "non-burnable/moenai gomi:, and recyclable garbage, and depending on where you like you have to further seperate organic waste (nama gomi), paper, glass (by color in my area), steel, aluminum, etc.