Ad skipping illegal in Japan? This is the second time I’ve run across this story. I didn’t say anything the last time because something seemed fishy, but now apparently the original article from Yahoo Japan has gone missing as well. I’m going to ask some of our more geeky Osaka friends if they know anything about what’ going on. I’ll report back with what I find out (if anything).

Update: Comments on the PVRBlog article have provided a link to a copy of the original story and another translation of the quote in question. In short the original article translated “might” as “would”. We’re way beyond my Japanese here, but I had Sue take a look and “might” is correct. So it looks like some broadcaster was trying to scare people into not skipping commercials and he got mistranslated into an even stronger statement. Additionally, there is a link to a followup article where apparently he gets ripped to shreds. I’ll see if I can get Sue to provide a translation. Oh, and everyone I asked (who would care) hadn’t heard a thing, so it’s only us westerners getting worked up.