CDs and DVDs/BDs can be found at different prices, the only issue there is the wholesale price which does not leave much space for large price variance. As for books, it seems I was off before about price controls, but also see this PDF on the book market in general.
When I was in Japan I never saw any price deviation from the price printed on the (new) CDs, DVDs, or books I bought, except for in one case where a CD & DVD store was going out of business. Youāve prompted me to do a quick google, and it appears that these industries are indeed covered by the same price-fixing law.
http://nippop.com/features/Saihan_Seido___Japan_s_Resale_Price_Maintenance_System/
A key reason for Japanās high CD prices is its resale price maintenance system - known as the saihanbai akaku iji seido, or saihan seido for short. The saihan system applies to six categories of copyrighted material: CDs, records, cassettes, books, magazines, and newspapers. The system, established in 1953, allows owners of copyrighted material to set the minimum retail price of newly released or re-released products, thus eliminating any possiblilty of discounting.
Edit:
I see your PDF says much the same (damn thing took forever to load!). Iām surprised that DVDs havenāt been covered by the law, as I assumed protection would have been extended to them as well, but music CDs are definitely covered. I suspect that the lack of pricing variance in DVDs is a result of non-discounting being acepted practice for all parties.
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My 2c:
I cannot comment on the worn underwear in vending machines as I personally never saw them and were told they were banned, but I can confirm that sex shops do in fact sell underwear that is marketed as if it has been worn by someone first. They were sold in zip-lock bags with no branding or marketed packaging, the only thing inside the bag apart from the underwear was a photograph of an attractive woman allegedly wearing the underwear in the pack.
Apart from Japanese peopleās general ability to follow rules that make society work, one of the reasons that crime (particularly vandalism) is rare in Japan is because instead of having a few big police stations, they have many tiny police stations (koban) scattered around, every 1km or so. Thereās always a cop nearby. You rarely see much graffiti in Tokyo and when you do itās almost always in back alleys near train lines and in punk rock bars or live houses.
On the drugs thing, Japan has crazy laws. 1g of weed = 1g of heroin in the eyes of the law. Thatās potentially why āspiceā like herb products are sold, because they avoid the potential of being in serious legal trouble.
The 2 best vending machines I saw when I lived there (for my purposes) were one in Asakusa that sold 1L cans of Asahi (I immediately bought one and drank it on the spot) and a vending machine in the 'burbs of Tokyo that sold rolling papers. I frequently would have things that needed rolling and papers arenāt really a thing commonly sold anywhere in Japan apart from tobacconists/head shops - so if it was late and you had none, you would be making a pipe from a Dr. Pepper can.
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Perhaps because Japanese copyright law treats different kinds of media differently? Just a wild guess based on knowledge of local copyright law only.
From your PDF it seems like the government/LDP/bureaucrats had a (quite frankly, very surprising) change of heart between the CD and DVD and decided they no longer wish to extend protection to new media formats (though itās not clear if it ever applied to videotape, laserdiscs, etc.).
The RPMA is the only exception of the law and the government does not want to extend the limitation to any other new media and new type of goods and services.
Those did all seem to be āone price everywhereā but that may have been for wholesale/collusion reasons rather than formal price controls.
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