For example, regional pricing is taken into account for the Switch 2 (the Japanese one was priced at ¥49,980 / $310 while the American variant is $450 + tax) but there are caveats, such as requiring a Japanese Nintendo Account and accepting that English isn’t supported. Nowadays game consoles are dual voltage (unlike old consoles from the past).

The answer depends on how much a game console costs in where you live: if it’s expensive (like for Australian Customers: the switch 2 is A$700 but the Japanese one is A$422) and for EU customers: the console is 470€ while the Japanese one is 270€, you get the point. Even though if you were going to import it just to not pay that much: do additional duties apply?

The same applies to the upcoming PS6 (for US customers: it’s NOT $999 alone if you count sales tax, so closer to $1050 or above) while it’s around ¥150,000 / $930 with 10% CT but even if one were to import it, does that alone void sales tax or replaced with a tariff? I mean, which one is viable: importing a console from overseas or buying one domestically?

There’s a catch you got to be aware of: warranty is rescinded when you take hardware out its bound jurisdiction unless you are willing to fork out more money on having it repaired by a technician. Knowing that, should you import it or pay MORE to buy it in your home country, as in it may be $450 for a console plus tax but the warranty is entitled to US consumers.

  • k0e3@lemmy.ca
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    1 hour ago

    If you come visit, we have duty free for any electronics above 20k yen or something like that (might be 50k, please check; also they’re stopping this programme in the near future iirc). So you save on the sales tax here. You just can’t open it until you get back to Australia I think. A

    lso, since you won’t have warranty anyway, you could consider getting it second hand for a lot cheaper. Any reputable second hand shop will also honour the duty-free shopping programme for foreign tourists.