I write often about the word 常識 joushiki, which means “common sense,” e.g. the common beliefs and opinions shared by a given group. Naturally what is common sense to someone in the U.S. or Canada is often going to be different from someone living in Europe, in Japan and so on. Part of the “common sense” of otaku culture in Japan is that it’s perfectly reasonable to charge fans $80-100 for a DVD or Blu-ray with 2-3 episodes in it, because the discs come in limited versions with cool artbooks and stickers for collectors, though this is obviously not a price most consumers in the U.S. would be okay with. (This is why the import anime Blu-rays we stock are priced as they are, in case you ever wondered.) The higher prices Japanese fans pay is important to anime studios of course, and anime fandom fans around the world can be said to rest on the backs of these dedicated Japanese fans. One of the important things for companies to keep in mind is to make sure you’re never trying to do business in one country while retaining the “common sense” rules of another — doing so will lead to a failed business in a very short time. Over the years, J-List has worked with many Japanese companies, and one of our challenges has always been, how to to keep them from trying to apply Japanese “common sense” rules to the West, for example charging prices that are higher than our customers would be comfortable with for our licensed English-translated eroge and visual novels, or printing gorgeous dakimakura and wall scrolls which look nice yet cost hundreds of dollars, more than most fans will agree to.
Japan can seem a different planet from the rest of the world, where $100 DVDs are the norm.
