English speakers generally do not understand Japanese

[drainer@mpinet.net]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Aaron Gerow" <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2005 11:20 AM
Subject: Re: English speakers generally do not understand Japanese



> 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.


  Sadly that's not the only industry there with such practices, which is why 
I made the tongue in cheek gesture that maybe they are afraid of making 
money. What that also suggests, in a rather illogical way, is that maybe 
they do know a share of what works there, or at least, what works for them. 
>From my observation in dealing with Japanese businesses I would say that 
there is a reluctance to open new markets and maximize productivity. But 
again, Japan is not alone in this; look at what happened when livedoor 
wanted to acquire more power, or when Koizumi voted for privatization of the 
post office. Although Japan has a large private sector economy it is still 
reluctant to follow the corporate model in many ways.


>
> 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.

  Well you know the old school probably thinks "why fix something if it 
isn't broken?"

>
> 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.
>

 From a business standpoint that makes the most sense, and the current trend 
indicates that this is happening.


> 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
>


 Progress is progress :)

-d