Most of you probably know that nearly all domestic rock albums released here have bonus tracks on their Japanese counterparts. I’ve been told that the Japanese demand these bonus tracks because the state of their recording industry makes it cheaper for the public to buy CDs imported from the US and Europe. Hence the extra songs and deluxe packaging: to give an incentive to buy the Japanese product. What I don’t get is the details behind this: what could possibly make it more expensive to manufacture domestic CDs than it would be to import them from abroad? I can’t imagine it’s a matter of volume, since the Japanese have a pretty sizeable population, and besides, there doesn’t seem to be a similar problem with other import/export products.
I can’t say for certain what the reason is, but I’m a collector, so I have some experience with this phenomenon. I think that possibly it’s a marketing ploy, to get fans from other countries to buy the same thing twice, the second one being the Japanese import, at twice the price. Here’s an example: Paul McCartney’s 1989 LP “Flowers In The Dirt” was issued in a limited edition double CD package in Japan. The second CD contained all of the bonus tracks from the CD singles and EPs from that album - but it contained two tracks that were not on any other issue. If you’re a fan and collector, you will have bought the US and/or the UK issue, plus the CD singles, plus the Japanese double issue (if you could get it), for what works out to the two bonus tracks. That’s more money for Paul, more money for MPL Communications and more money for EMI. It’s a complete collection for you, but you spent a lot of cash amassing it, and you have a lot of repetitions of tracks now.
I hope I live long enough and make enough money to go CD shopping in Japan. Virtually nothing ever goes out of print there. You can get CDs of American and British groups, featuring material that has been out of print in its respective country for decades, as well as contemporary albums with the bonus tracks you mentioned. It’s possible that those tracks may show up on a domestic box set someday, or maybe not. I’d chalk it up to greed on the part of the record companies and/or the artists. Lucky for Japanese collectors, expensive for the rest of us. But if you want the extra music, you gotta do what you gotta do!
Electric Obiland can answer that question. And you might find some good CDS on their website.
Actually, my understanding is that things are constantly going in and out of print in Japan. The Electric Obiland FAQ linked by Annie-Xmas seems to corroborate this. The reason is that the Japanese labels get hit with a punishing tax on inventory, so it is in their best interest to keep press runs small. In the vinyl days this had the side effect of improving the quality of the pressings, as stampers didn’t get used until they wore out, as was the case in the USA.
Only a WAG, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the business tax system had a lot to do with the reason it’s more expensive for Japanese labels to produce their own CDs than it is to import western pressings–if not directly, then at least through economy of scale, as the small press runs alluded to above would cost more to manufacture per unit.