English speakers generally do not understand Japanese

[Aaron Gerow]

> But again, to point to economics, the studio heads know their share of 
> the market, even if their business practices seem odd or as if they 
> are "afraid to make money" (this applies to almost all companies in 
> Japan). If it didn't work for them, the movies wouldn't get produced.

I'm afraid there is just too much evidence from the 70s to the 90s that 
many Japanese film companies don't know their market, or if they do, 
they don't do much to exploit it. Just look at some of the MITI reports 
on the industry from that period, or more recent books like Nihon eiga 
sangyo saizensen, and you can see how much the industry was criticized 
for not investing in new talent or new technologies, not opening up new 
markets, for engaging in restrictive and self-defeating practices, etc. 
Things have been shaken up in the last few years, but there is still a 
lot of incompetence out there.

That doesn't necessarily mean that putting subtitles on the DVD is 
"competent," but first it is clear that Japanese companies have largely 
ignored the possibilities of DVD technology. Few releases have audio 
commentaries or any decent kind of extra features (when they do, it is 
in the "special edition" you have to pay twice the price for), even 
though Japanese DVDs are still very expensive as it is. Not adding even 
Japanese subtitles (which is the case with a lot of releases) is part 
of this attitude. It may be due to economics--make it cheap and sell it 
dearly--but I still feel that many companies have little imagination in 
trying to develop this market.

As for English subtitles, I wonder if one factor isn't the fact that 
more Japanese films are being released on DVD in English speaking 
countries. Can the decision not to include subtitles, in some cases, 
have to do with the hope, or genuine plan, to sell it abroad? Perhaps 
not releasing an English subtitles DVD in Japan--especially in the age 
of the Internet--makes it easier to sell the DVD right abroad? I wonder.

That said, there are still a lot of DVDs of recent films with English 
subtitles. I just did a search on DiscStation of DVDs of Japanese films 
released with English subtitles since September 2004 and the result was 
129. Though that includes some doubling (the standard plus the special 
editions), that is still a decent number. The problem for many of us is 
that barely any of these are films from before 1990.

Aaron Gerow
KineJapan owner

Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University

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