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Japan's Gaming History Now Safe

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the can't-keep-an-old-NES-down dept.

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."

4 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Right wing zealot mode by IamGarageGuy+2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Another example of government thinking that they can artificially manipulate the market.

    --
    Stay tuned for new sig...
    1. Re:Right wing zealot mode by God'sDuck · · Score: 5, Funny
      And who do you think artificially manipulates the Japanese government?
      Godzilla.
  2. Reminds me of a quote... by lbrandy · · Score: 5, Funny

    "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. " -Yogi Berra

    Amazingly true... especially in economics...

  3. Crazy economics to ban secondhand goods by Snamh+Da+Ean · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can't get over the idea that they seriously considered restricting secondhand markets. Functioning secondhand markets reduce the new purchase price of consumer goods since you can get some of your cash back if you decide to sell; in other words, it makes you more likely to but the new good in the first place. Removing this option reduces the effective demand for the new good, which is contrary to what they were planning to achieve. In addition, the environmental effects of such a policy would have been potentially terrible.