Overview

• Fumihiro Otobe, a transportation worker from Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture, is the first person in Japan to be arrested and sentenced for selling modded Nintendo Switch consoles.
• Otobe modified second-hand consoles by soldering parts to enable them to run pirated software and bundled them with 27 pre-installed pirated games.
• The modded consoles were sold online for 28,000 yen, undercutting the price of a standard Nintendo Switch, which retails for 32,978 yen in Japan.
• Otobe was charged under Japan's Trademark Act, though questions remain as to why the Unfair Competition Prevention Act was not applied.
• The case sets a legal precedent in Japan for addressing hardware modifications that facilitate piracy, reflecting growing global efforts to combat intellectual property violations.