Electrical Ground in Japan

Hello,

Sorry if this has been asked before, but it was hard to search through all the standard electrical questions and mine is a little different.

So I have been living in Japan for a few months, and got most of appliances (both bought in the States and in Japan) working correctly. I just seem to have a slight problem with ''grounding'' or ''earthing''

In Japan, I have bought appliances (namely audio speakers) that have the standard Japanese two prong plug, but with an extra wire sticking out. This two prong + wire is comprable to the American three prong plug. I went to the electronic store and asked them what it was for and they said it was for ''kaminari protection'', in other words ''grounding''. They furthermore said that I ''don't need to use it''. I wanted to further explain that I DID need to use it, but my Japanese is not yet good enough to get that far.

It should be also noted that I have one two-space outlet in my apartment which accepts these plugs, but multiple instance of said plugs. (more than i can plug into the one outlet)

So upon further research on my own, I found power strips that will accept my American three prong plugs (assuming that the voltage is within the correct parameters of the appliance), but don't have the correct space for the Japanese two-prongs + wire. Also note that the power strip has the two-prongs + wire so it can go to ground. This is nice for my American appliances, but doesn't solve the problem for the Japanese ones.

So my question is:

How can i get ALL of my electronics properly grounded?

IS there a power strip that will accept both types of plugs? Or is there some sort of two prongs + wire to three prong adaptor that I can buy?

Because of this problem, I get terrible noise through my speakers and when I plug in my audio interface. Also when I use my Macbook Pro, I feel a slight vibration which a friend of mine identified as slight electric shock! Scary! It's very troubling, any help would be much appreciated!

You can get adaptors for 2 pin and earth wire to 3 pin, and vice versa at any electrical store. You could could then plug into your powerstrip and use that to go into a wall outlet with grounding post.

Also, it's highly unlikely that you are receiving any sort of shock from your Macbook. (Nothing to do with earthing anyway - they use an inline transformer which is not earthed in any case). The vibration is most likely from the hard drive. This is normal for all notebooks - but particularly noticeable with the high-speed drives and rigid metal enclosures of Apple notebooks.

You should not have to ground ALL electrical devices. Only the ones with metal cover should (such as a dishwasher or a hoven). Grounding a laptop is really not needed.

Thank you very much Lady Kodaira and guest. It all seems so simple now. I will try to find these plugs at the store tomorrow.

And I'm glad to here that it is not shock. It was really bothering me for awhile. Thank you again.

i said that all my appliances needed to be grounded because i run all of my audio equipment requires grounding to ensure that it's noise free. Since it's part of my signal chain, it actually includes the laptop for my peace of mind. But yeah, thanks for all the info again. you were much more helpful than the guy at the electronic store.