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La Chine avait banni en 2000 les consoles de jeux vidéo parcequ'elles ""pouvaient causé des problèmes au développement mental des enfants""

Sony corp and Nintendo , Japan’s biggest makers of gaming devices, rose after China Daily said the world’s most-populous country may end a 12-year ban on the sale of video-game consoles.

Sony, the maker of PlayStation machines, jumped as much as 8.8 percent in Tokyo, to 1,404 yen, highest since April 2012. Nintendo, the creator of super Mario jump as much as 8.2 percent, the most since August 2011, to 10,070 yen and traded at 9,760 yen, as of 11 a.m. on the Osaka Securities Exchange.

China banned the consoles in 2000 because of concerns about the potential harm to the physical and mental development of young people. The Ministry of Culture is now holding discussions with other departments about potentially ending the ban, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported today, citing an unnamed person.

“Investors are welcoming the report,” “It would open up a new and huge market for the video-game makers.”

Nintendo, Sony and other Japanese companies have also benefited from the yen’s decline to the weakest in 2 1/2 years against the dollar, Shimizu said. A weaker currency boosts the repatriated value of Japanese exporters’ overseas earnings.

The Chinese console ban was introduced by seven ministries in 2000, and all of them would need to agree for it to be ended, China Daily said. A spokeswoman in the Ministry of Culture’s press office said it couldn’t immediately comment. She declined to give her name.

Sony doesn’t sell PlayStation units in China, according to Satoshi Fukuoka, a Tokyo-based spokesman. No one was immediately available for comment in Nintendo’s press office today.

Game consoles are available in China through black-market retailers. Touchscreen computers and smartphones, such as Apple Inc.’s iPad and iPhone, are available legally.