Ask John: Do Japanese Fans Import American Anime DVDs?

Question:
Do people living in Japan buy anime from the United States? This may seem like a silly question but with prices of DVDs in Japan, which offer fewer episodes per disc than their American counterparts, wouldn’t it make sense to buy them from the U.S? Or is losing out on newest releases and all the goodies and extras not really worth the savings?

Answer:
Based on the trends we see as an international anime retailer ourselves we can generalize that average Japanese fans do not import a significant number or amount of American anime DVD releases, with the exception of adult anime. There are potentially a number of reasons why Japanese consumers don’t import American anime DVDs en mass. The most likely reason why Japanese consumers don’t import a lot of American anime DVDs is impatience. Hardcore Japanese otaku tend to pre-order their DVDs and eagerly await release dates. Importing American discs, although less expensive and more content packed, takes days or weeks. Hardcore Japanese anime fans may not want to wait that long to own their favorite anime DVDs, and mainstream Japanese consumers, just like average American consumers, don’t want to deal with the hassle of importing foreign DVDs or simply never think of the option of importing foreign DVDs. Furthermore, many American anime DVDs are region coded to exclude compatibility with Japanese DVD players. It’s not uncommon for Japanese licensors to protect their native market share when negotiating foreign distribution by stipulating that American anime DVDs must be encoded exclusively for DVD Region 1. I just don’t know how common region free or modified DVD players are in Japan, although I suspect that in such a high-tech country, they’re bound to be available to consumers that seek them out.

Finally, based on second-hand knowledge I’ve been told, there may also be a more shady reason why many Japanese consumers don’t import American DVDs. With the easy availability of high-tech electronics in Japan and the proliferation of second-hand anime retail stores in Japan, many Japanese consumers don’t actually keep their anime DVDs. If certain Japanese consumers aren’t going to keep their original discs, there’s very little reason to expend the time and effort to import American anime DVDs. Reportedly, it’s not uncommon for Japanese consumers to purchase a new release anime DVD, make a back-up DVD-R copy of it, then trade in the pre-owned original disc the next day to an anime shop like Mandarake or K-Books. While there has been little word of anime bootlegging in Japan passed to English language reports, news of native Japanese bootlegging affecting Japan’s music industry in an similar fashion has been reported for years.

The exception is generally adult anime DVDs. Japanese consumers do tend to import a lot of American hentai anime DVDs, in part because they often cost three times or more less than their Japanese counterparts. But the main reason why many Japanese consumers make the extra effort to import American adult anime DVDs is because the American DVD editions are uncensored while all adult DVDs in Japan (both animation and live action) are digitally censored by law.