Using American electronics in Japan

October 20, 2014 12:40 AM

Hi, I am moving to Japan soon and I can't seem to find a definitive answer on whether or not my various electronics will work in Japan. I was hoping to move my tv, speakers, consoles, and AVR but most of them are rated at 110-120V and Tokyo is rated at 100V. I have read articles saying it is fine and other saying the opposite. Can anyone point me to some credible source to help answer this question? Are there other things I need to look into besides voltage? My understanding of electricity is abysmal.
posted by Pterofractal to Technology (10 answers total)

Best answer: I can't vouch for every single piece of electronic equipment but I have lived in Japan with an American laptop and video game consoles without any trouble at all. If you have any three-pronged plugs, though, you'll want to buy converters that switch them to two, as three-pronged outlets are basically nonexistent in Japan. Since you'll be in Tokyo, you can buy converters at Akihabara Electric Town.
posted by urufu at 1:11 AM on October 20, 2014

You should probably look on a per-piece-of-electronics basis. A ton of stuff is basically universal, except for mechanical considerations (which aside from the 2-prong thing won't be a concern for you). But of course nobody can speak for every electronic device ever made. But most stuff will be fine.

Voltage is the only thing you need to look into.
posted by aubilenon at 1:20 AM on October 20, 2014

Best answer: Pterofractal: "I have read articles saying it is fine and other saying the opposite."

Back before I came to Japan, I found the same conflicting information, and I think what it comes down to is: it depends on how that specific device is made. There is no definitive answer across the board because not all devices are built the same. That said, in my own experience, everything I've ever brought from the US has worked in Japan, and in every forum discussion of this topic I've ever read, I've never heard anyone say that they had something which didn't work. While it may happen, it is apparently a vanishingly rare phenomenon.
posted by Bugbread at 1:21 AM on October 20, 2014

Response by poster: How about another question, is it dangerous to plug a US Power strip into a Japanese wall socket? The power strip circumvents all the 3-prong problems but now I am afraid of things like shorting and catching on fire haha.
posted by Pterofractal at 1:26 AM on October 20, 2014

Not any more or less dangerous than plugging a Japanese power strip into a Japanese wall socket. If it's a 2 prong US power strip, it doesn't have a ground anyway, so there's absolutely no difference between it and a Japanese power strip. And if it is a 3 prong strip, and you just mean you're thinking of using it so that way you only need to get one 3-prong-to-2-prong converter, then once you've attached your converter, you're dealing with something that's functionally identical to a Japanese power strip.
posted by Bugbread at 1:31 AM on October 20, 2014

The voltage is not an issue. We typically talk about American power as 110V, but it can actually vary from 95V to 120V.

I'd be more concerned about the frequency. Some parts of Japan are 60 Hz (just like the US) but some parts are 50 Hz.

In Japan, the western part of the country (Kyoto and west) uses 60 Hz and the eastern part (Tokyo and east) uses 50 Hz. This originates in the first purchases of generators from AEG in 1895, installed for Tokyo, and General Electric in 1896, installed in Osaka. The boundary between the two regions contains four back-to-back HVDC substations which convert the frequency; these are Shin Shinano, Sakuma Dam, Minami-Fukumitsu, and the Higashi-Shimizu Frequency Converter.

Using 60 Hz equipment with a 50 Hz line isn't really very good; the power supply on electronics can overheat and eventually smoke. Electric clocks won't keep time properly.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 4:15 AM on October 20, 2014

The clock thing, again, is not guaranteed. There are a lot of people who say that clocks won't work, but I haven't read anyone say they've actually brought a clock and had it not work. However, I have read a few comments from people living in Japan who say their US clocks do work fine.
posted by Bugbread at 6:44 AM on October 20, 2014

Electric clocks (with hands) won't keep time because they use the power line frequency to control the movement.

Electronic cocks (LED readouts, for instance) may work if they're using an internal crystal for a timebase.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:55 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Does going through one of those international power converters fix the Hz problem?
posted by Pterofractal at 11:35 AM on October 20, 2014

No, most converters do not change frequency. Previous question on frequency here.
posted by Yorrick at 8:00 PM on October 20, 2014