An omakuni game! How to live with it.

What can you do if a Steam game is in "omakuni" state? All is written here.

"Omakuni" (Jap: おま国) means, roughly speaking, that in Steam you can't play some Japanese games in Japan itself. (In this article, I explained what "omakuni" is, in a style similar to Wikipedia.)

Below we see what you can do for omakuni games. The scope is limited to Steam, but I don't think omakuni is relevant to other platforms.

Distinguish two factors

First you have to understand there are two factors:

  • A: A game you can not play in Japan.
  • B: A game you can not buy in Japan from the Steam Store.

Distinguish these two. The case A always implies the case B, but for the case B, it is often possible to buy one from other game retailers.

Steam Store doesn't sell to Japan!

First we elaborate on the case B.

For example, "Dragon Quest XI" is omakuni-ed. Its Steam Store page URL is https://store.steampowered.com/app/742120/, but if you try to see it from Japan, it says:

OOPS, SORRY
An error was encountered while processing your request:
This item is currently unavailable in your region

meaning you can't buy it.

In fact,

  • You can see the above error (?) message from anywhere, and
  • You can view the product page from Japan.

They can be done by appending "?cc=us" or "?cc=jp" to the URL. Its effect is to change the currency unit of the price to US dollar / Japanese yen. (In fact "cc" is followed by a country code. So both "cc=fr" and "cc=de" prints the euro price.)

Let's try this trick for the above example: Visit https://store.steampowered.com/app/742120/?cc=us (USD) and https://store.steampowered.com/app/742120/?cc=jp (JPY).

Still it doesn't mean you can buy it from Japan, but it's good to know.

An alternative source of this kind of information is SteamDB. If the price in Japanese yen is not set, then that game isn't sold to Japan from the Steam Store.

The above "?cc=**" method may fail due to an age check. In that case, first pass the age check of, say DayZ: https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/221100/, which seems to be sold without any regional restriction. This way you can "get a certificate" of the Steam Store site beforehand.

Can I play this game in Japan?

Even if the Steam Store doesn't sell a game to Japan, many games can be played in Japan. (In that case, you have to buy a key from other official retailers or so-called keyshops.) But how can you check if it's actually playable?

This issue is covered repeatedly, I think, but I'd rather include it here to be complete. Use SteamDB to get this information. (Details will be given below.) If your game is said to be

  • "This package can NOT be activated or purchased in specified countries" or
  • "This package can only be run in specified countries",

then you can't overcome that restriction. Give it up. (There's some variants, like "This package can NOT be purchased in specified countries".)

Update: Previously (until around 2022), the message was "This package is only purchasable in specified countries". See e.g. here. Here "purchasable" was rather off the point - it actually meant you can not activate the game even if you have its product key.

For example, "PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+" is omakuni, i.e. can't be played in Japan. According to SteamDB, "This package can NOT be activated or purchased in specified countries: [Japan]."

How to use SteamDB to check regional restrictions

  1. Go to the game top page. Example: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Ultimate Edition
  2. Go to the "Packages" link. In the above example, there're 4 packages. Each package has its own unique SubID.
  3. Check "information" tab of those packages. If there's a regional restriction, then it will appear there.
    In our example, the "RU+CIS" package's name already looks like it's only for Russia and CIS. "Reviewer package" and "ValveTestApp234080 Early Access Comp" are probably not for ordinary consumers, so ignore them.
    There remains one with SubID 29664. It lists many non-purchasable countries. It's the verdict.

If there's at least one SubID that can be played in your country, then there is a chance that you can play that game.

See also