Trip to Tokyo/Kyoto in October..planning stages

[Pickles]

Originally Posted by ani90

It might not make the prices at Akihabara higher but might make the prices at best buy lower...

Prices at Best Buy aren't lower because of "government incentives". At least not the Japanese government. The last thing anybody wants, including the Japanese government, is lower prices for its country's products.

If you're talking about foreign governments providing incentives to its people to buy stuff, well that's different.

[LapLap]

Originally Posted by ani90

What electronics goods does it make sense (for whatever reason) to buy in Japan for someone visiting from US?

A decent rice cooker. (range from Yodobashi Camera sorted from most expensive downwards)

Wish somebody would subsidise these for purchase in the UK! (With one sole exception by Sanyo, only ones I've seen for export to the EU are the equivalent of the lowest tier 10,000yen machines in Japan.)

[ponder]

I guess it depends what your expectations are buying electronics in Japan vs at home, which is the UK for me. I've bought three reasonably priced devices over the years :

Panasonic CF-R4 notebook: Tiny laptop with 10" LCD, 7 hour battery life, long before the current netbook craze started. Nothing that size or longevity available at home. (Of course, there's an abundance of them nowadays)

Sharp Zaurus C3000: Linux-based PDA. These models were only available in Japan.

Playstation 3: Available everywhere, but due to exchange rates at the time it cost £180 for PS3 + 1 game. UK RRP is still around £290 today!

If you have something particular in mind and the exchange rate is decent then buying electronics in Japan can work