What's the deal with Japanese Imports?

[TheMusicalMarine]

Perhaps an ignorant question, but I'm curious. Why all of these albums so rare in the States but available in Japan? Is the Japanese jazz market so much stronger than it is here? Thanks.

[Captain Hate]

Good question, TMM; even though its been ages since I've bought a Japanese Blue Note, I've always wondered about the practice of a Japanese company buying the rights to recordings from Blue Note and to ultimately sell them at a premium (not that this was their primary reason for getting the rights) to people here.

I'm sure some of the refugees from the old Blue Note bbs can provide insight into this; I'd bet that they had forums on this.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally posted by TheMusicalMarine
Perhaps an ignorant question, but I'm curious. Why all of these albums so rare in the States but available in Japan? Is the Japanese jazz market so much stronger than it is here? Thanks.

For the same reason the American record company empty suits delete certain titles and refuse to produce the rest.

Just TRY to find a Kazumi Watanabe CD in the States.

G'head.

I dare you.

It is ALL about control and who has it...the record companies could give a shit about the music.






Bottom line.

[Pete C]

Originally posted by Captain Hate
Good question, TMM; even though its been ages since I've bought a Japanese Blue Note, I've always wondered about the practice of a Japanese company buying the rights to recordings from Blue Note and to ultimately sell them at a premium (not that this was their primary reason for getting the rights) to people here.

I'm sure some of the refugees from the old Blue Note bbs can provide insight into this; I'd bet that they had forums on this.

I believe EMI-Toshiba is the Japanese wing of the same global entity that owns Blue Note, and they are released for the Japanese market. CD's in Japan are considerably more expensive than in the U.S., and adding the import expenses (shipping, tarrifs, etc.) makes them incredibly expensive here.

[Martin]

Here in Germany, Japanese CDs are two or three times the price than European or American releases, provided you can get them at all through domestic mail order stores.

Only twice I ordered directly from Japan. The first time was from the honorable Yoshiyuki Suzuki, who was absolutely helpful in tracing some rare (from a European viewpoint, "obscure") items for me. The package arrived after just five days. The customs guys forgot to charge VAT/import duties, so the whole thing was not forbiddingly expensive. I was much less lucky with my second order from Japan.

[Jon Abbey]

Originally posted by Pete C
CD's in Japan are considerably more expensive than in the U.S., and adding the import expenses (shipping, tariffs, etc.) makes them incredibly expensive here.

are there actually tariffs on CDs ordered from Japan? I don't think that's really true, at least not in my experience.

[shrugs]

Not sure but I do know that the Japanese cd's I have heard that are reissues of classic titles from Blue Note, Impulse and the OJC umbrella are almost always the best sounding reissues I have heard.

[Martin]

Originally posted by Jon Abbey
are there actually tariffs on CDs ordered from Japan? I don't think that's really true, at least not in my experience.

At least in Germany there are, though VAT makes for the much bigger part of additional expense, let alone fees for money transfer to a Japanese bank account, when the recipient is not willing to accept PayPal payment.

[Tanager]

Martin, several of the big online retailers carry Japanese imports (CDUniverse does, for example, *and* they take PayPal), so that might be an option worth looking into.

[Gary Sisco]

I think many times they were released in Japan because they'd sell in Japan, where there is a market for them that's a lot steadier than the one in the US. But lots of things are sold with different rights in different countries, especially on the distribution side.

[Pete C]

Originally posted by Jon Abbey
are there actually tariffs on CDs ordered from Japan? I don't think that's really true, at least not in my experience.

I was referring to items ordered through U.S. distributors/retailers. I assumed there would be tarrifs on the wholesale level that would be passed along to the customer in the final cost, but who knows.

[Jon Abbey]

yeah, I know Europeans have to pay customs on anything that looks like a purchase coming in from overseas, but I think (I'm not positive) that this doesn't happen in the US. for instance, when I order from Amazon UK, the price they charge me is actually cheaper than the one on their web site, because they deduct the VAT in the checkout process. then the package is delivered to me just like an Amazon package from inside the US would be.

[shrugs]

Originally posted by Jon Abbey
yeah, I know Europeans have to pay customs on anything that looks like a purchase coming in from overseas, but I think (I'm not positive) that this doesn't happen in the US. for instance, when I order from Amazon UK, the price they charge me is actually cheaper than the one on their web site, because they deduct the VAT in the checkout process. then the package is delivered to me just like an Amazon package from inside the US would be.

Only time I have ever paid customs was when I bought some stereo equipment from a guy in Canada.