Retro market in Japan could be in trouble?

[andrewfee]

According to Engadget, as of April 1st, Japan will be making it illegal to sell any electronics manufactured before April 1st 2001.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/22/japan-bans-old-electronics-as-of-april-1/

Now, I'm sure that selling games will be fine (what about carts though?) but couldn't this potentially push up the prices of hardware quite significantly, as consoles would effectively become black market goods?

[halfacandan]

According to Engadget, as of April 1st, Japan will be making it illegal to sell any electronics manufactured before April 1st 2001.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/22/j...as-of-april-1/

Now, I'm sure that selling games will be fine (what about carts though?) but couldn't this potentially push up the prices of hardware quite significantly, as consoles would effectively become black market goods?

I presume that this has been done for "safety concerns" but it is perhaps one of the most stupid laws and wasteful I have ever heard of. I can only hope that rather than filling up landfill sights with old electronics, they have an advanced RoHS & WEEE equivalents in place or are willing to ship it to countires (like China) who could make use of them!

[wheelaa]

I don't know the site..nor indeed can I access the article from work..but it screams of April Fools to me (?).

[muse hunter]

i would like to see that act in detail, but i would presume that it doesn't include videogames, especially considering the size of the retro market in japan. I would believe that law is there to prevent dodgy second hand dealers selling old TV's and hifi's at the expense of the manufacturer, maybe they should introduce something similar in the UK, just for the sole purpose of putting crack converters out of buisness.

[Silvergun X]

Come on. April fools.

[Silvergun X]

http://www.mutantfrog.com/2006/02/22/2nd-hand-electronics-sales-will-not-soon-be-illegal-in-japan/

[crazymadone]

Come on. April fools.

It's not even March yet

[Silvergun X]

Well i'm willing to bed some story will pop up on April 1st saying 'Not true, sorry. '

[SuperDanX]

Even if its true there are so many ways around it, eg selling a game for the price of a console and giving the console away as a 'free' gift.

[nightstalker100]

I presume that this has been done for "safety concerns" but it is perhaps one of the most stupid laws and wasteful I have ever heard of. I can only hope that rather than filling up landfill sights with old electronics, they have an advanced RoHS & WEEE equivalents in place or are willing to ship it to countires (like China) who could make use of them!

WEEE and ROHS? Thats exactly what my masters degree is about. Halfacandan, are you involved in the environment in anyway or just very knowledgeable?

[mid]

My understanding of the law is that it only affects stuff running mains voltage, and doesn't stop them being exported. So expect to see a flood of 2nd-hand SNESes and N64s arriving, but carts and anything handheld will be fine.

Also, I can easily see a trick with the Nintendo consoles where it'll still be legal to sell them without the power brick. Possibly followed by a niche manufacturer selling brand-new and certified replacements.

[Yakumo]

I got a very odd mail the other day about this. It was from a Japanese mail address and in Engrish. Take a look at it and spread it all over the net !!! How they knew I sold stuff is a question I'd love to be answered and who sent it to me? The mail address is came from was - k-nakamoto@ tamron.co.jp and titled SOS from Japan !

In the beginning, I am sorry to write suddenly long sentences.
As victims' representative of it, I dare to write that here.
... to inform lots of people all over the world about that ...

The consumption cultures of Japan are facing a serious crisis by The
PSE
Standardization (Electrical Appliances And Materials Safety Law) now to
prevent the ignition accidents of consumer electronics, it is enacted.
Though RoHS looks like this, there are large problems in ruining the
Japanese economy!

Buying and selling consumer electronics with built-in power supplies
which were made before the year 2001 (3DO¡¦PC-FX¡¦Sega Saturn¡¦Dream
Cast¡¦
Play Station 1000-9000¡¦Neo-Geo CD etc. correspond in the game
machines)
will be impossible by this law in April 2006! The auctions too may be
restricted!
The buying and selling of the repair goods and junks will be also
impossible!

The AC adaptors (The main bodies are off the subject) also will be
scheduled to
become impossible to buy and sell in April 2008! Besides video game
consoles,
amplifiers, synthesizers, tape-recorders, phonographs, vcrs,
cine-projectors,
and industrial machines, etc. will be abandoned in large quantities!

It is NOT AT ALL considered for the OTAKU cultures and the managers of
recycling shops!
The production lines of the factories will stop! Farmers will be
impossible
to harvest their crops!
The business of Japan will be dull again and it will exert a big
influence
on the world!
The environment of Japan will be greatly destroyed and we will be
jeered
all over the world!
Moreover, this decision had not intentionally been notified to people
until
recently!

By the way, it is recorded in the Constitution of Japan like those.

Article 13:

All of the people shall be respected as individuals.
Their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness shall,
to the extent that it does not interfere with the public welfare,
be the supreme consideration in legislation and in other governmental
affairs.

Article 29:

1)The right to own or to hold property is inviolable.
2) Property rights shall be defined by law, in conformity with the
public
welfare.
3) Private property may be taken for public use upon just compensation
therefor.

It is obviously a breach of the constitution!
In order to raise the unfair advantage, METI and
certain electric companies in Japan (specially SONY and PANASONIC)
concocted it!
They think that disposable electric products are natural!

What do you think about the above-mentioned matters ?

Where are the people who feel doubt about it ?
Where are the people who feel shock about it?
Where are the people who feel sadness about it?
Where are the people who feel anger about it?

Please do not disregard this matter. Please cooperate with us.
It is difficult to change the situation only by the public opinion of
Japan
because it is irrelevant for the person who doesn't buy and sell used
consumer
electronics. We are glad that foreigners use our industrial commodities
and
enjoy
our culture. We do not want to make them disappointed. We must
apologize to
the ancestors that the destruction of Japanese environment advances any
further.
Everything becomes spoiled if it will not do by in April 2006!

Please broadcast this.
Please create an opposition movement for this.
Please complain to Japanese embassies about this.
Please boycott new electrical appliances made in Japan.
And, Please copy the full texts and paste them to other pages!

Thank you for all the readers who read full texts!



**************************************************
LINKS

Outline of this law

http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/terms/denan.html

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry

£?}¡Ý£³¡&Yacut e;£?} Kasumigaseki Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-8901 Japan

TEL:£??£³¡Ý£&s up3;£µ£??£?}¡&Yacute ;£?L£·£??£&middot ;

http://www.meti.go.jp/

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


Electrical Appliances And Materials Safety Law

http://law.e-gov.go.jp/htmldata/S36/S36HO234.html

The Page of Electrical Appliances And Materials Safety Law

http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/consumer/seian/denan/index.htm

Specific Electrical Appliances

http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/consumer/seian/denan/hourei/denkiyouhin_ichiran/tokutei_denki.htm

Objects other than specific electric appliance

http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/consumer/seian/denan/hourei/denkiyouhin_ichiran/tokuteigai_denki.htm

**************************************************

Task Forces

http://www8.atwiki.jp/denkianzen/

http://antipse.org/

http://www.geocities.jp/kenban2ch_gakki/denanme.html

http://www.jspa.gr.jp/ (by Ryuichi Sakamoto et al)


**************************************************

NEWS

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20060214-00000029-zdn_n-sci

http://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/0602/14/news017.html

http://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/0602/14/news017_2.html

**************************************************

Shops that started limitation of buying

http://www.sofmap.com/kaitori/event/2009602.htm

http://www.gx-japan.com/suruga/denki.html

http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/nagoya-sakae/used/used.htm

**************************************************

To tell the truth, accidents happen frequently although they are PSE
recognized goods! What does the PSE recognition mean?

http://www.jiko.nite.go.jp/index4.html

http://www.tomy.co.jp/recall20060126/

http://www.playstation.jp/news/2005/050913_ps2acadp.html

**************************************************

I checked out the softmap link and it does seem 100% true. I say **** 'em ! They can kiss my arse ! It's like living in some communist country bringing a crap law out like that. What about the recycle shops such as Hard Off ?

Yakumo

[muse hunter]

thats it Yakumo, fight the power! i can do my part as well i could type out a fairly rude email and send it to the japanesse government, that should teach them. Bastards

[wheelaa]

Buying and selling consumer electronics with built-in power supplies
which were made before the year 2001

Of course those of us who like 'proper' gaming know that consoles with external psus, say pce and md for example, are the only ones that count .

Seriously though, is it not more panic than problem? Can't the shops get pse accredited/trained etc?

Otherwise get in quick lads with your hardware buys. If you don't...black market dodginess time awaits you.

[Darwock]

I had slightly read this wrong, and I had been thinking it meant they'd have to sell such things overseas instead (i.e. a win for us, or more accurately - eBay), but if the actual act of selling is illegal, then that's obviously not going to happen. I'd been contemplating selling my NTSC-J Dreamcast, definitely not going to now!