I was staying at an APA Hotel in Tokyo and stumbled upon this by accident.
When watching videos on Youtube via screencast on the hotel TV it seems like they are blocking specific videos related to WW2 and Japan. I even was using a VPN but it seems like they block it via the screencast.
Has anyone else expierienced something similar?
maybe the videos are geoblocked in japan?
When looking around where I should stay in Japan, I found many reports that APA is distributing WW2 Japanese warcrime denial pamphlets and booklets in their rooms, some written by the founder himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re unhappy about documentaries tackling those topics and block them as a result.
There are also some other fun controversies about them if you look around the internet. For the record, I chose not to stay with them as a result of learning about the WW2 stuff, but all the rest didn’t really make me wanna stay there either.
VPN won’t block direct streaming like that. Unless the actual device is on the VPN.
APA has been noted in Japan for its proximity to the far right, particularly visible through the works considered revisionist and antisemitic that can be found in the company’s hotel rooms, and the links of its founder with far-right figures such as Steve Bannon.
If it’s something like chromecast it’s not sending your screen locally to the device, it’s sending the source URL of the video itself, so VPN wouldn’t make a difference unless it was at the network layer the TV was using. That being said, did you try playing the same videos on your phone or computer without vpn? On cell? On their WiFi? If it doesn’t work at all on any it’s likely geo blocked as another commenter said. If it works on cell but not WiFi it’s likely their network is blocking them
Update:
So I checked via Wifi/Cell without VPN just on the phone and then youtube says the uploader did not make the video available in this country or skips it entirely, so I guess my original thought about the hotel actively cencoring something is wrong.
I did not know some casting services just load the video via the device you cast to itself. So if you are travelling you kinda really have to watch directly on your own devices only to get around geblocking I guess.
