Time: Japanese Law to Outlaw Resale of Old Game Consoles

Resale of old game consoles to be outlawed in Japan. How will consumers adapt?

A story on Time details an upcoming law that will outlaw the resale of older electronic devices--particularly video game consoles--in Japan.

The Product Safety of Electrical Appliances and Materials Law (PSE) goes into effect on April 1st of this year, and will effectively end the legal distribution of used game systems like the Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, and even early versions of the first PlayStation. The Time article notes, however, that "most Nintendo decks...are spared" from the resale law.

Japan's PSE law was drafted in the name of preventing electrical fires. But because it bans the resale of any electronic device that dates from before 2001, some have described it as a way for electronics companies to force consumers to buy newer, more expensive products.

The PSE not only governs old gaming consoles but most electronic home appliances, such as audio equipment and televisions. But according to the popular Mutant Frog blog and Asahi, some of the anti-PSE backlash is alarmist and inaccurate. To get around the upcoming PSE law, for instance, a company could "charge customers in advance for a fixed time period [a lease], and the customer will be able to return the item at any time. When the lease expires, the firm will simply give the appliance away--another action exempt from the PSE rule."

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