BODY: If you've been refreshing Japanese retailer pages hoping for a crack at the gold-and-green Switch 2, one just opened. Rakuten Books reopened pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch 2 Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Edition at around 7:30 p.m. on October 9 — and alongside the standalone console, the store listed a set pairing the limited-design hardware with the Ocarina of Time remake.
The anniversary console ships October 29 at ¥62,980, dressed in the Triforce-inflected gold-on-green scheme Nintendo revealed in September. A matching Pro Controller (¥12,980) and carrying case (¥3,980) arrive the same day. Nintendo does not include a game in the box, which is what makes the Rakuten listing notable: the Ocarina of Time set is a retailer-assembled bundle, not an official SKU. The remake itself launches a week later, on November 5, at ¥8,980 for the physical version and ¥7,980 for the download.
One critical detail for overseas readers: this is the 日本語・国内専用 model — the Japanese-language, domestic-only Switch 2. Nintendo sells a cheaper Japan-locked variant whose system language and eShop region are fixed to Japan, specifically to discourage resale abroad. It is a fine machine if you read Japanese and live here. It is a bad import.
Stock on both listings is moving in real time, and GAME Watch's own caveat applies: by the time you click through, the window may already have closed.
The insider take
Rakuten Books has quietly become the pressure valve of Japan's hardware-shortage economy. Unlike My Nintendo Store, which routes scarce items through 抽選 (lottery) entries, and unlike Yodobashi or Bic Camera, where in-store allocation often beats online, Rakuten does guerrilla restocks — unannounced drops at odd hours that circulate on X within minutes. Veteran buyers keep the page bookmarked and watch for evening windows, exactly like this one. The point-multiplier campaigns around the 5th and 10th of each month add another wrinkle: savvy shoppers will sometimes pass on a confirmed order to wait for a better points day, which is precisely how a sold-out listing comes back to life.
Originally reported by GAME Watch (Japanese).