Electrical conversion: Australia-Japan

Australia is on 240V 60hz and Japan 100V (50hz in Tokyo I gather). How does it effect different types of electrical appliances? I suppose I should use concrete examples...

1) Electric toothbrush charger.
2) Shaver.
3) TV/VCR/DVD.
4) Laptop computer.
5) Desktop computer.

At this point I'm more concerned about Australia to Japan conversion, although I'm also worried about buying a laptop/desktop computer in Japan and then trying to use it in Australia. Also, how do I actually go about this? Just buy a conversion plug from an electrical store?

There are no dramas using Ozzie appliances in Japan with a conversion plug. Or American appliances for that matter. Just dont think your going to recharge your mobile here...it isnt going to happen. The computer works fine though.

I'm going to Japan in June from Australia and purchased a AC-to-Car charger convertor. It works for both 110V and 240V which brings me to another point, a lot of electrical appliances these days run both voltages. Most laptops are like this too so you shouldn't have a problem, just check.

The car charger is for my PDA and GPS. I also have a car charger to USB convertor if I need that too to charge the MP3 player. I could use it for my mobile phone and AA/AAA battery charger if i need to but runs off 110V too.

My Laptop is bought from Japan. It runs from 110V-240V, 50-60Hz. Not a problem at all. The only thing is the plug is different, which is easily solved. In fact, the plug cable that runs to the adaptor can be swapped to an Australian one anytime, since it detaches.


As for other equipment going from Aust to Japan to use - as long as the adaptor/transformers/chargers can work at 110V it should be fine. Again just a matter of changing plug.

If your existing 240V item can't run on lower V, you will need a transformer. :)

Just in case you didn't know, Japanese TVs and videos work on a different system from Australia - NTSC rather than PAL format, which I think is something to do with number of lines on the screen or something. Basically what it means is that an Australian TV won't pick up Japanese broadcasts, and an Australian video player won't play Japanese tapes. With a DVD player you have the same problem, plus the region coding issue. There may be clever things you can do to convert them, but in my experience, you'd do better leaving your Aussie models behind and buying multisystem ones here - export-oriented shops in Akihabara all sell multisystem/multivoltage TVs/videos/DVD players which you can use in Japan or anywhere in the world (no problem taking them back to Australia).

thats true about the tv standards, but these days tv's sold in australia are pal and ntsc compatible. most VCRs are able to playback ntsc tapes but not record (high end VCR can record NTSC and PAL if you need it). same with DVD players. most DVD players sold in australia are not limited to region4(australian DVDs region) and will playback DVDs from all over the world (US is region1 and JAP is region2)

back to the original post, most laptops sold in japan have japanese keyboard layout with japanese characters with the english. not a huge problem. i think when you look at laptops they're not that much cheaper then buying one in australia, and you get warranty and no voltage worries.

Well Laptops in Japan definitely look nicer. Especially the Fujitsus local models, they have everything thrown in - and much better than the US market ones.

Which both we don't get in Australia anyway.

Prices are similar. However I actually found that CPU wise, Japanese laptops lag slightly behind overseas models for the same price.

As for keyboard, the @ key changes to the right somewhere! And the quotation marks/apostrophies moved too. Otherwise, quite similar!

I brang my aussie laptop to japan and have no problems. The adapter from aust to japan usually has just two prongs, and my laptop plug has 3 prongs, so the guy in the shop said to buy a different adapter (maybe american but i can remember) and then he cut the earth prong off as japan wall socket only has two holes.

I also brang my hair straightener and it works but not effectively, in aust it would take 10 seconds to heat up and stay hot, in japan it takes about 10 minutes. You may have this problem with your shaver.

I don't live in Oz but Canada. Before you scream at me I just want to say that the charger for my Camera (Japanese but bought in Canada) worked perfectly in Japan, plug and all. It did take a wee bit longer. I bought a couple of cheap DVDs in Japan and when I tried to play them on my computer DVD player back home "region 2" flashed on the screen AND.... .
..it played it just fine..
Ain't modern technology grand?