Is the WiiU gamepad region free?

[tonev]

I saw that ninendo of japan is selling on their website the wiiu gamepad only for 12,800.00 JPY    witch is 106.642 USD and it is a very reasonable price to pay for it. Since mine is broken i was wondering if i buy it from Japan can I pair it with my EU console?

[Pikkon]

WiiU gamepads are region locked.

[Koop]

WiiU gamepads are region locked.

Wow seriously? I would've never guessed that...

[zmaster18]

I was just wondering this too, I also checked to see how much a used gamepad is going for on ebay. It looks like for me it's CAD$150-200. $250 for a Zelda Edition gamepad.

I also researched if you can even use the console without it and it turns out you can just use a Pro controller for the menus and some games. You can also use a Wiimote for the menu as well. I don't really see the gamepad as essential so I'm going to sell mine since I don't use it much.

Nintendo of America/Canada.com has replacement ones on their online store for about CAD$200/$US170 plus shipping. Many people say it's better to just buy a new Wii U bundle and sell the console or other parts/accessories with it and you will save more money. You could also get a game download code out of it if too, for value! 

[chowder]

This claims the situation to be slightly different ie: you can use  a different region pad to play games, but NOT update the firmware:

http://www.destructoid.com/uh-what-wii-u-gamepads-are-also-region-locked-update--241255.phtml#BI594cqo50ICbhvq.99

I don't actually own a Wii U, so I'm just going by what I've read

[FamiGamer86]

I saw that ninendo of japan is selling on their website the wiiu gamepad only for 12,800.00 JPY    witch is 106.642 USD and it is a very reasonable price to pay for it. Since mine is broken i was wondering if i buy it from Japan can I pair it with my EU console?

What do you mean by "broken"

[tonev]

Broken beyond repair the it was damaged during shipping the gamepad was broken in 2 separate parts the board the screen everything was wrecked beyond repair.  The motherboard could be fixed but the time and money spent on fixing the board plus the cheapest screen with the touch panel was around 45 and the fact that the plastic case was also damaged and this means that it had to be fixed glued and it was just going to look ugly.

[FamiGamer86]

Why didn't you contact nintendo support? Was this new or used?