Kanazawa "At Home at Ryokan Service"
If I buy a DVD in Japan will it work on the DVD player I have at home? And a videocamera? And another device?
To use in your country, cameras, video cameras, various electronic equipment and DVD, CD and other audio/video products purchased in Japan,
you must consider three factors:
- The power type required for the device: For guidance on this point you can read the answer to the question “What kind of electrical network is used in Japan? ” on this same guide,
- The language used: for CD audio of course there is no problem, but for DVD Video and electronic devices, unless you know Japanese, you should be sure that the device supports your language. Actually should be noted that very often the products sold in Japan are created only for the Japanese market and so are only in Japanese language (for example, Sanyo camcorders are in this case).
- The protection system used(DRM). In the case of DVD-Video for example, if you want to be sure that your disc will work with all standalone players of your country, you must live in Zone 2 of the protection system, namely the countries listed in orange on the map below (for more information see here on Wikipedia):
Zone 1: United States, Canada, Bermuda and U.S. territories.
Zone 2: Europe, Middle East, Japan, Egypt, Greenland, South Africa, and Swaziland Leshoto.
Zone 3: South-East Asia, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan.
Zone 4: Oceania, Central and South America, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Zone 5: Russia, Former Soviet Union, Indian Subcontinent, Mongolia, North Korea and Africa.
Zone 6: China
Otherwise, buy or modify (usually is possible to change the zone of a standalone player a limited number of times) a player to read DVD zone 2, or buy the DVD for zone 0 (zero) that works in all the places of the world.