Japanese Man Receives Suspended Sentence for Nintendo Switch Modifications

A 58-year-old man in Japan has been sentenced for illegally modifying and reselling Nintendo Switch consoles.

According to reports from NTC, the Kochi District Court handed down a two-year prison sentence, suspended for three years, along with a fine of 500,000 yen (around $3,500 USD).

The ruling marks the first criminal conviction in Japan specifically for selling modified Switch consoles, reinforcing the nation’s increasingly tough stance on gaming-related intellectual property violations.

Who Was Involved?

The convicted man, Fumihiro Otobe, a resident of Ryugasaki City in Ibaraki Prefecture, was employed in the transportation industry. He was arrested last year after authorities discovered he had been modifying used Nintendo Switch consoles by soldering custom parts onto their circuit boards.

These hardware changes allowed the systems to bypass Nintendo’s built-in security, enabling the use of pirated software/games.

Otobe sold the modded consoles through various online flea market apps, pricing them at about 28,000 yen ($195) each.

On April 14, Judge Yasushi Inada issued the verdict. While Otobe was found guilty of trademark infringement, the suspended sentence means he won’t actually serve time unless he reoffends during the next three years.

The ruling is a landmark case—it’s the first known conviction in Japan of someone selling modified Switch consoles, and it sends a clear message to would-be modders and pirates.

Nintendo has a long-standing reputation for aggressively defending its intellectual property, and this case aligns with its global enforcement efforts.