A number of Japanese Beta VCRs have made it over here to the states. Some of the most notable have been the high end units like this EDV-9000 (which is almost identical to the EDV-9500). Because Japan uses the same television system as the US (NTSC 3.58) they can be used over here. But they operate on 100 volts AC instead of our 110. The way around this minor obstacle is to use a down converter to drop the AC voltage. If this isn't done, over time our higher voltage will overdrive these units and cause them to fail. The line frequency of 60 Hz (cycles) is the same for both countries.