JJapan

Switch 2 costs 49,980 yen for a Japanese only system and 69,980 yen for a multi-language system

  • April 2, 2025

Switch 2 costs 49,980 yen for a Japanese only system and 69,980 yen for a multi-language system

by NobleSpartan

41 comments

  2. You can enter the lottery for the international version only under these conditions:
    •累積50時間以上のSwitchでのゲームプレイ（2月末時点）

    •累積1年以上のSwitchOnline加入&抽選応募時にも加入中

    I guess I won’t be able to purchase a Switch 2 on release date then… well played Nintendo 🤦

  3. Really milking that good faith they’ve built up lol. But who am I kidding, of course I’m paying 20,000 extra.

  5. Kudos to Nintendo for discounting the system for Japanese customers, so that people can actually afford it, honestly impressed.

  6. Its fucked, i understand they’re going to argue its due to the weak yen and they fear people buying them cheap then selling them overseas, but honestly it just feels like a foreigner tax, even-though its not.

    I pay the same taxes as Japanese people, should be able to get it for the same price as everyone else here.

  10. I think it’s a good idea stopping people from buying up versions in Japan with the weak yen and reselling overseas.

  11. As an American living in Japan this gaijin tax is ridiculous 😅

    Just let me show my residence card, let it be like the opposite of all the people who get to show passport for tax free things

  12. Will retail stores sell multi-language units? I’m abroad here until August and am wondering how I’m gonna get one :/

    I wonder if it’ll be easier in Japan than America if anyone has any insight. The lotteries seem more organized to prevent the scalping bullshit.

  13. Well I for one am not paying extra. This is ridiculous. If they wanted to stop people from other countries buying it cheaper in Japan they could’ve had other means of doing so. This is just discrimination and foreigner tax. I earn Japanese wages why would I have to pay more. Absolutely incredibly shitty move.

  14. They should make it so that any voltage above 100 will make it fail. Then it’s even more difficult to export ( not impossible)

  15. The question is:
    Is it just the system only that will be in Japanese?

    What about games? Are they region locked?
    Like, will I be able to play games from Europe on it?
    Or will I be able to play pokemon, purchased in Japan, in English?

    If yes, then I honestly don’t see a problem with the Jap-only Switch if one can understand Japanese.

  17. It says “Only Japanese is available as the system language”, does anyone know if that means the games themselves can be in other languages?

    I wouldn’t really mind having the console menus in Japanese, but if the game language can’t be changed…

  18. Boy am I happy to be a Japanese speaking foreigner in Japan who already had all her language settings in Japanese. I think it’s not a bad decision given how weak the Yen is right now anyway.

  19. I know it won’t change anything but as a foreigner working in Japan for 12 years and having had a Switch ever since launch and even buying a second one and buying a lot of games for me and my children in both Japanese and other region accounts, I’m majorly disappointed. I wrote them an email immediately and I know it’s probably gonna fall on deaf ears but I couldn’t let this stand. I know this isn’t nearly as bad as any discrimination faced by people in other countries, so before anyone wants to argue that, I already know. Yet it’s still discrimination because I’m being asked to pay 40% more for the same product simply because I don’t want to be bound to Japanese language only. 

    Honestly I get trying to prevent international customers from overseas. I’m behind that. But there must be other ways. Let Japanese accounts buy it but don’t restrict the hardware to Japanese, like what the hell kinda discriminatory crap is this even?

  21. They said that the Japanese version will only support Japanese eShop accounts, but I wonder if that means the multi-language version will not support Japan accounts. I worry that those of us who use both US and JP accounts will be left holding the short end of the stick. Gotta go all in on one region, I guess?

  22. So even if I buy the Japanese version in Japan I can’t use the games I previously bought outside Japan before moving? I can’t transfer the data from my current switch bc i bought it outside Japan?

  25. This is great news.

    Nintendo always delivered for the domestic market and continues to do so.

    Foreign price/JPY 69,980 is prohibitively expensive for anyone on a Japanese salary especially these days for a non-necessity item.

    49,980 remains very expensive, but is a lot more accessible.

  26. People saying learn Japanese to enjoy games are corny. People want to enjoy games in their native language regardless of how good their foreign language skills are.

  29. But if I put a US cartridge in the game slot will the game still boot, even if the game is Japanese only?
    I don’t mind playing in Japanese, but I want to know if it’s region locked

  30. If only they put some sort of difference on the shell…which doesn’t seem to be the case… I’d actually be rather up to the idea of paying extra. Like, if I’m gonna pay my bilingual tax please let me flex it???😂

  31. Couldn’t they have just region-locked the games somehow to Japan-sold editions only, and the e-shop too ? Or required a Japanese home address to unlock full features such as NSO and eshop access or something..?

    I understand the yen is weak and they want to protect against scalpers, but…

    Why limit languages when there are plenty of foreigners in Japan, and Japanese who might want to play games in foreign languages as practice or new experiences, etc.

    Extremely tone-deaf and I hope they face enough vocal backlash to change that aspect before release. This just stinks of stupid, tunnel vision Japanese way-of-thinking. It’s 2025 and you’re not an isolationist country anymore… smh

  32. To everyone complaining: it is NOT more expensive to buy the “international version”. That will costs as much as the other versions will do in the us and europe.

    It is the “japan only” version that will be cheaper. The other one has a price aligned worldwide, whether it is yen or another currency. If it wasn’t like this, NO ONE in japan would be able to buy the console as scalpers would kill the stocks. So, while this is not ideal for me either (i speak japanese, but I only play games in english)… I do appreciate the effort that nintendo put in for the locals.

  33. I understand why they’re doing it, but if you moved from a foreign country to Japan, wouldn’t you be forced to buy the 70000 yen version? I guess you could change your account region, but I don’t know how it would work

  35. I’m going to be in Japan during the Switch 2 launch, I guess trying to get one over there is out of the question.

  36. Nintendo is receiving earnest requests from children in Japan regarding pricing and resale issues. Compared to the technical and minor problems being discussed here, these issues may seem trivial and insignificant. Can you say “no” to these Japanese children?

  37. So what happens if I log in with my Mexican account and download a game that’s not available in Japan?

    Could it be that S2 has some kind of region lock?

    Edit: the site says you can only link Japanese accounts. I hate this, I’ll have to pay up because I use both a JP and a MX account…

  38. They got the pricing all wrong. This was supposed to be affordable but this console price in combination with the overpriced games made me decide to skip Switch 2 even though I wanted to get one originally.

  41. I am sorry, but we’d be victim of hunger export if such measure is not taken

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