# Do Japanese DVDs generally have the option of displaying English subtitles?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-dvds-generally-have-the-option-of-displaying-english-subtitles/108479>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 11, 2002, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-dvds-generally-have-the-option-of-displaying-english-subtitles/108479 "2002-05-11T12:59:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![the\_great\_dalmuti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b2d939/32.png) [@the\_great\_dalmuti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_great_dalmuti)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-dvds-generally-have-the-option-of-displaying-english-subtitles/108479/1 "2002-05-11T12:59:46Z")

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Thanks for looking. I live in Japan, and am considering buying a multi-region DVD player.

Do most Japanese DVDs (classics like Kurosawa’s films, Miyazaki’s movies, etc.) generally have the option of displaying English subtitles?

On the same note, do DVDs from other countries (France, China, etc.) usually come equipped with English subtitles?

Thanks.  
-TGD

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**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-dvds-generally-have-the-option-of-displaying-english-subtitles/108479/2 "2002-05-11T14:13:56Z")

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You can find it out on publishers’ and mail order web sites. I just looked at the specs on a few DVDs on Amazon Japan, and the short answer is: many Japanese movies have English subtitles, but many don’t. It looks like movies known/shown internationally usually come with English subtitels, but there are no guarantees.

I don’t know about other countries.