It's fascinating because its the reverse of the usual way to solve this problem. Typically, games would be region-locked. For the first time Nintendo has locked

It's fascinating because its the reverse of the usual way to solve this problem. Typically, games would be region-locked. For the first time Nintendo has locked the console itself to a language and a region. I guess the benefit for Nintendo is that outside of the reduced price, there are zero benefits for players to having a Japanese version. It used to be that a Japanese 3DS was cool to have.