First-ever Switch modding case in Japan ends with fine and suspended jail time
What just happened? A man who became the first person ever arrested in Japan for selling modded Nintendo Switch consoles has been fined and given a suspended prison sentence. 58-year-old Fumihiro Otobe was arrested in January and has just been found guilty by the Kochi District Court.
While people have been arrested in other parts of the world for selling modified Nintendo Switch consoles, it had never happened in Japan before Otobe’s apprehension at the start of this year.
Otobe, a transportation worker from Ryugasaki City, was initially arrested on suspicion of soldering hardware modifications onto circuit boards in used Switch consoles, thereby allowing them to run pirated games.
Otobe sold the handheld hybrids online for about 28,000 yen (approximately $195). Each Switch had 27 pirated games pre-installed.
Otobe admitted what he had done when he was first charged. He said, “I was curious if people would think I was great for selling modified machines.” Police found four modified Switch units in Otobe’s possession, so he would have likely been found guilty even without the confession.
NTV News (via Automaton) reports that in a hearing held on April 14, Otobe was found guilty of infringing on Nintendo’s trademark rights and other violations. He was sentenced to two years in prison, though Otobe will no doubt be grateful that this custodial sentence has been suspended for three years. However, he still has to pay a fine of 500,000 yen, which is about $3,500.
Otobe certainly got off lightly compared to the unfortunately named Gary Bowser. The Canadian national, a key member of the Team Xecuter group that created tools like modchips and jailbreaks for circumventing Nintendo’s security measures, was arrested in 2020 in the Dominican Republic on 11 felony counts of piracy.
In 2021, Bowser was sentenced to 40 months in prison and ordered to pay Nintendo $14.5 million – over 400,000% more than Otobe. Bowser was released from prison in April 2023 after serving 14 months. He had paid Nintendo $25 per month using money from his prison job while incarcerated, so the $14.5 million he owed the company had been reduced by $175.
