Not applicable to Japan, but we blew up our hair dryer in Paris. Some devices have a switch for 110-240V, and we did not push the switch all the way over. For about $39 back 25 years ago we still own a European hair dryer. I assume for Europeans in Japan, running a 240V appliance on 110 will mean it simply does not work very well.
Our teachers back in the day mentioned this, remembering that flourescent tube lights were awful back then when the school board tried installing them, they had a visible flicker.
The voltage in an electric grid isn’t perfectly stable anyway, but fluctuates based on current demand and power generation; you won’t get the exact nominal grid voltage all the time. The difference between 100 and 110 volts is probably more than that normal intraday fluctuation, but still something a device should be able to handle.
I’ve operated a European 240 V electric razor in the North American network without converters. It works but runs much more slowly than usual. The reverse (running on more than nominal voltage) is more critical, you risk frying your device.
As others have said, other than making sure you have a three prong to two prong adapter where needed, none of those items would have any problem in Japan. The thing to actually worry about is bringing items from Japan back to the US. For example, they have nice rugs with built in heating that can catch on fire in the US because of the difference in voltage.
One thing to note is that some of the items you would purchase for the trip might also be useful for when you are in the US. I bought a MINIX wall charger that has 2 USB-C ports and is quite small compared to the power adapters that came with my laptop so I use that instead on almost a daily basis as it fits quite nicely in a just about any bag I use.
I had the bad luck to have one device - an AA battery charger, back in the day when cameras used AA- and plugged it in with just a plug adapter in Australia. It went “POP” and I ended up spending $60Au for a new charger - which works fine in North America with a plug converter, being 110-240V compatible.
Drainage pumps in New Orleans use 25Hz power to this day. They have dedicated generators and special frequency converters. Which are as old as the pumps and tend to fail when needed most. It is a problem…
Replacing the circa 1900 pumps with similarly sized modern pumps is quite expensive. The pumps are quite large and surprisingly efficient. So it is hard to justify the expense.
Not sure where I should post this, so I will post here. We loved our two week trip to Japan. Beautiful country, everyone friendly, safe, clean, etc. There is a lot good to say here. Plus, we loved our backpacking trip in the “Japanese Alps”. It was great and we would go back. The thing we loved the most is the universal top notch quality of food. We have to yelp/tripadvisor in the US because you can end up with some bottom notch food everywhere. Not in Japan. Any restaurant is going to be good.
If it’s a sort of appliance that runs directly on the wall voltage. More and more things nowadays have built-in voltage converters anyway. Though it probably will be true for anything that’s meant to produce heat, because that’s really easy to do directly.
As recently as the 1960s and maybe later, parts of NYC were on DC. This went back to Edison’s dislike of AC. A friend of mine lived in an apartment that had an AC generator that ran on DC current sitting in a closet to provide 60Hz power for appliances. And it made a hell of a racket.
I’m glad that you enjoyed your trip, but unfortunately there are plenty of restaurants that aren’t top notch. I agree that few are really terrible, but I’ve had a few over the years.
