What was up with Japanese Imported Versions of CDs?

Cafe Society
1

I used to be a lot more of a music fan than I am now, but there was one curious thing I never understood…

When CDs ruled, the music stores would often carry Japanese Imported Versions of CDs (usually hard rock or metal but could be anything hip and popular). They cost at least $30 more than the domestic version. Once in a while they featured an extra track or two, but not always. They looked the same as the domestic versions, except they had a little strip down the left side of the packaging which was covered in Japanese writing.

The music stores were always staffed by these taciturn ponytailed dudes who treated these import CDs as if they were the bones of a saint, especially for a band like Led Zeppelin. I once asked what was so special about the import CDs, and received a non-answer with a condescending smirk.

Were these things just ripoffs? Who bought them and why? What was so special about Japan?

2

There are three reasons to buy an Japanese import CD:

  1. Some people believe that the Japanese editions sound better (which is doubtful since there’s no reason why they would make one master for the US and a different, better one for Japan. Mastering a CD is a lot of work.)

  2. Sometimes there are bonus tracks unavailable on the domestic release

  3. You are an OCD completist who must have every single thing your favorite artist puts out

3

Japanese CDs had bonus tracks to encourage Japanese consumers to buy “domestic”, since it was cheaper for them to buy imported American CDs. This had the consequence of Americans wanting the Japanese CDs for their “rare tracks”. Since they were made for Japanese consumption, they were more expensive than their counterparts. Companies exporting these disks to the US weren’t going to get a great deal buying in bulk, so the high costs seen in US were representative of what the consumer would have paid in Japan. In other words, the sticker price on many those CDs was 3000 yen, when there were 100 yen to the dollar. So the Japanese were effectively paying $30 a disk. So did the US consumer.

A smaller side bonus was that it seemed that all Japanese CDs came with lyrics booklets; even if the original UK/US version didn’t. Collectors were known to splurge for that alone.

4

I’ve only purchased one Japanese CD: Bob Dylan’s Live 1961-2000, which is mostly comprised of selections from available live albums like Hard Rain but does have a few tracks that were taken from B-sides or promos or are previously unreleased.

5

The explanation I always heard was that the bonus tracks are to encourage the local Japanese consumers to purchase the domestic version of the CD over the imported American/European version of the CD.

For example, in the 90’s the Japanese versions of the Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream and Adore albums both had a single bonus track on them.

6

Makes sense about the extra tracks & booklets, although one would need to be a real hardcore fan to pay double the price for one or two more mystery songs.

But what really confused me, was when they would also sell (in North America) Japanese versions of back catalog records that had no bonus tracks at all. (maybe this is the musical version of the placebo effect?)

I thought the artist controlled the track listing, and I wonder why the Japanese market was unique about adding extra tracks once in a while (never saw this from any other country)