I didn’t know you could do that. I’m in Taiwan and I know Steam doesn’t let you make a purchase without a local credit card. So I imagine that’s the case for Japan.

Basically what Gabe said.

This was before emulators were a thing. It was super early days of modding.

So a few years ago I wanted to play a Japanese version of a rhythm game that isn’t available to purchase in the USA and decided to try my hand at modding my switch for this one game.

After(poorly) doing it, I wasn’t able to play that game AND Nintendo bricked me. All my games on my switch that I purchased were unable to download or play anymore.

So I went and set out to mod my switch correctly.

Now if I actually wanted to give Nintendo money, they won’t allow me to. So my only option from then on is to pirate.

They basically turned a potentially paying customer to a non paying customer.