I was reading this: http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-11230-2nd+hand+electronics+sales+will+soon+be+illegal+in+Japan.html
And my first thought was "big brother is watching you." I mean if you allow gorvernment to force you to do as it pleases with your own material goods, next you will allow governmet to do as it pleases with every other aspect of your life...
ho! wait! that allready happens :/

The Akihabara News site is a little misleading (it's not a ban necessarily), though you've got it right (it's still bullshit). My co-blogger and I were requested to find out more about the Denan law, and the best article on it was from Asahi (at least among what was available in the free online media).

It looks like some of the secondhand retailers will be able to get away with phony leases or perform the inspections themselves. The massive (but belated) public outcry that's resulted from this insult of a law will probably make it more likely that these loopholes will be tolerated.

I hadn't heard about this at all before, but it's an interesting development. I'm not immediately convinced that this is an intentional handout to big business. The law itself was passed in the 60s (but not implemented until 2001 for some reason). The new law could have served the purpose of showing the world that Japan was a modern nation with real safety standards (since it was a new member of OECD), or it could have been made to create more government-owned companies to send bureaucrats after they retire, or a combination of things. They might not have anticipated the development of a 100 billion yen/year, nationwide used electronics industry at the time. I need to look into this more!

david sometimes worries about the wrong things.

Caught wind of this one a couple of weeks back when one of my Japanese co-workers mentioned it in conversation. My Japanese isn't up to the job, but can anyone tell me what the official explanation (if any) is for implementing legislation such as this now? All sounds utterly barmy to me.
I wonder, too, if places like Hard Off would be prohibited even from selling pre-2001 electronics in their "Junk" section...

The law itself was passed in the 60s (but not implemented until 2001 for some reason).

I believe this is an update on the 60s law (DENTORI).

david sometimes worries about the wrong things.

Are you saying I should stick to curling?

is that a hidden action from the mighty musical industry to have us all sound exactly the same in the end? hum. relying on US ebay sellers only is not good news for old synth lovers (i'm a casio fan myself).

I think they're trying to push the DX-7 on young kids so that the synth can ruin another generation of pop music.

So much for conserving resources.

I passed a shop in Shibuya that used to sell violins and chellos, now they sell vintage electric bass guitars. I'd love to own a "real" Fender J Bass, but I'm unlikely to pay 400,000 or more for one. I figure that since basses and guitars dont plug into the wall, those items are safe, but amps on the other hand may require a loophole. Any synth/etc with an external AC adapter may be safe, but the adapters are not (NB, many music eletronics use totally non standard types of adapters) but if it plugs right into the wall then it needs a loophole.

The best kind of legal policies are those that make law-abiding citizens constantly try to find loopholes to continue their non-dangerous behavior.

Aren't there all kinds of business/consuming practices in Japan that are based around exploiting ridiculous loopholes in the law?

Off the top of my head pachinko, magic mushrooms (used to be legal), the porn industry, and "soapland" come to mind.

I think these are different cases:

1) Prostitution - not traditionally considered criminal in Japan. I could be wrong, but as with meth, I think the Occupation had a big influence on this.
2) Magic Mushrooms - I don't think the gov't knew what was actually going on. The gov't did crack down once World Cup rolled around.
3) Porn - is it too much to say that the LDP indirectly makes money from this?
4) Pachinko - retired policemen directly make LOTS of money off this

I think with all these cases, it depends on who profits from the loopholes. Do you see the Japanese government standing up for Book Off over Panasonic?

more than soaplands, the deai sites and telephone clubs are the loophole exploiters. Soaplands aren't actually supposed to allow the 厳禁な penetration, but the individual prostitute seems much more free to offer an unlimited range of "services".

But I agree with adamu. The preponderance of well-known loopholes that are exploited to the extent of becoming the full livelihood of a huge number of people is strange. Excluding campaign finance, the states (cue the momus cultural comparison alarm!) has usually busted things up pretty quickly.
Then again, the exploitations of Enron and the old currency arbitrage really weren't small time in the least. Maybe no one (excluding horie) has found ways to exploit the loopholes to the point of endangering the broader economy/society. After all, all of the listed loopholes are just blue laws.

wow. that first paragraph really sounds like I speak from experience. So either I just let something embarrassing slip, or I should be more careful about my writing style.

Yeah, Adamu is on to something! Secondhand retailers should take a cue from pachinko and, instead of selling used electronics outright, sell shiny silver balls that can be exchanged for "free" used electronics!

But this law does seem like an unecessary hassle- Why not just pass a law that says 2/3rds of everyone's salary is going straight to Hitachi, do not pass go? Why bother with the whole manufacturing process at all? Just think of the money they'd save on labor, materials, overhead, advertising, distribution, etc!

... and it'd be much more environmentally friendly that way!

1) Prostitution - not traditionally considered criminal in Japan. I could be wrong, but as with meth, I think the Occupation had a big influence on this.

much like co-ed bathing, but i'm really curious if there are any sites where the actual laws on this are available for reading? i actually know a few girls who work in the industry in susukino (well not at soaplands, but at Health clubs and Hostess bars) and they don't know anything about the laws or legality about what their doing, and they certainly know enough to not be interested in asking about it.

and, umm just about every soapland i've ever heard my co-workers (I haven't tried to go into any for that matter, but due to my skin color i also have never been invited into one by the 'helpers' either) talk about has definatley allowed penetration. thats what seperates them from the healths.

Well all the laws of the land are available for your perusal here:

http://law.e-gov.go.jp/cgi-bin/idxsearch.cgi

But really, I think it would be faster to go to the library (if you're in Japan) and go through their stacks to find an explanation.

Or you could search around Japanese Wikipedia or Google.. maybe Captain Japan's Sake Drenched Postcards has something about it that would help. Or Human Rights Watch/Amnesty International or whatever.

It's a good question though, I'm curious as to specifics myself... but still, this is bound to be just as chaotically complicated as Japanese antitrust law, so beware!

vaginal penetration is against the rules. any, and everything else goes. I believe there's a loophole in that law in that the woman can "freely offer" said service if she is in the mood. It can't be advertised, and can't be an explicitly paid service though.
Of course that doesn't mean that it can't be implied, and the law will hardly keep the street barkers from promising it, and the girls from offering it for an extra fee.

Behind closed doors, the government is content to leave you with a wink and nod.

Like the US, I think there are special rules about making porn videos, but I couldn't really tell ya.

man, why do I know so much?

funny how the thin veil of "consumer electronics" falls away so quickly. An iPod is a bj is a diamond ring.

I totally don't understand how making porn is legal in not-Nevada (that is to say, states where prostitution is illegal). OK: prostitution is when you pay someone to have sex with you. Porn is when you pay two+ people to have sex together while you film it. So, does this mean you're not allowed to self-finance your porno movie? Why don't johns just set up a shell company to pay themselves and their escorts? Or better, why not have a "Make Your Own Porno!" production company, where after you pay for the privledge of starring in a porno, they take your fee, use it to pay your "co-star," and kick some back to you after you complete the movie. And then for an extra fee, they destroy all copies of the movie and the evidence that you totally just bought time with a hooker, only under a different name.

Hmm, someone should start a company like that in Kabuki-cho.

Isn't r. a little kuwashii on these matters?

I'm really curious about the frequent appearance of the "○" in discussions and advertisements, like ゴッ○ン and such. Is that to avoid making an explicit promise, or to avoid legal scrutiny? Or is it just the charm of the mosaic brought into the written word?

I suppose I should stop the tasteless hijack though.

to porn??

am i the only one to see the cool side in this? as long as there are no public burnings of kraftwerk, peter gabriel, buffalo daughter records there is a strong element of 'leting go' , 'moving on' to this all.

the economic , anti-capitalist spiels above are fine on their own terms, to get to the crux of it though i'm afraid we'd also need something like a solid critique of, say, the guys in charge of the ise shrine.

actually, i just recorded an interview with a chinese 'soapland' girl last night in japanese on my ipod; best money the monbusho spent all week.

r: is that related to your research project? or just a hobby?

Can't it be both?

i was asked by a patron to do it.