Japanese circuitry uses a different protection scheme than you might be familiar with. Japan’s electrical code is set up around short circuit protection instead of ground fault protection. They operate differently and provide roughly the same protection for your electronics.
And many do have grounds just in case you need one. You will need to either pop up the little plastic thingamabob with the ground screw underneath it (and your appliance will need a dedicated ground wire) or you might have to actually remove the face plate to check if there’s a ground for that outlet.
Basically the difference in electrical circuit design between Japan and the rest. Electronics sold in Japan is designed so that ground connection is not required, while others are designed with ground connection in mind. However, if it’s a device with high risk of shock (e.g. often touching waters, like washing machine) then ground connection is required.
The other thing that I was explained by a Japanese is that buildings here have high safety standard in the electrical wirings, so the risk of shock is really low.
Other possible reason is that simply for space saving & cost reduction.
However, the funny thing is that it is still recommended to use the ground connection whenever possible.
The joke that my ex coworkers told me is that Japanese people can handle getting shock once or twice if the wiring or the appliance gets hot. Since it won’t kill you, it’s not necessary to over engineer a house by grounding everything.
RCD/GFCI has been required in the main breaker box since the 90’s, making grounding less important. In the US GFCI is only required on the outlets in wet areas, in the EU GFCI is also required in the main breaker but it’s a more recent requirement.
Newer houses and apartments are starting to have the 3 pronged outlet. Also even older ones have the separate ground wire for the large appliances.
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Japanese circuitry uses a different protection scheme than you might be familiar with. Japan’s electrical code is set up around short circuit protection instead of ground fault protection. They operate differently and provide roughly the same protection for your electronics.
And many do have grounds just in case you need one. You will need to either pop up the little plastic thingamabob with the ground screw underneath it (and your appliance will need a dedicated ground wire) or you might have to actually remove the face plate to check if there’s a ground for that outlet.
Basically the difference in electrical circuit design between Japan and the rest. Electronics sold in Japan is designed so that ground connection is not required, while others are designed with ground connection in mind. However, if it’s a device with high risk of shock (e.g. often touching waters, like washing machine) then ground connection is required.
The other thing that I was explained by a Japanese is that buildings here have high safety standard in the electrical wirings, so the risk of shock is really low.
Other possible reason is that simply for space saving & cost reduction.
However, the funny thing is that it is still recommended to use the ground connection whenever possible.
The joke that my ex coworkers told me is that Japanese people can handle getting shock once or twice if the wiring or the appliance gets hot. Since it won’t kill you, it’s not necessary to over engineer a house by grounding everything.
RCD/GFCI has been required in the main breaker box since the 90’s, making grounding less important. In the US GFCI is only required on the outlets in wet areas, in the EU GFCI is also required in the main breaker but it’s a more recent requirement.
Newer houses and apartments are starting to have the 3 pronged outlet. Also even older ones have the separate ground wire for the large appliances.