I’m talking about something like sports streaming not offering English commentary or even Netflix that is not even a Japanese company not offering English subtitle of some show or anime when it’s available in my country with the country language and 10+ others.
Most Japanese sites don’t offer English is understandable, but I don’t really understand why they can’t include the already available languages or default language as an option. I don’t think it costs anything much. It’s so bizarre.
EDITED: I’m talking about something like Premier League rights. In which I believe they does include the English default commentary.
Someone gave an examples of anime on Netflix such as One Piece, I believe Netflix is the one who does and proves the subtitles in which they did at least in my country where more than 50% of population doesn’t understand English. 1% of the population uses the English option. One Piece in my country got like 10+ languages as subtitles.
EDITED 2: Seems like most of you are from English speaking country. I’m not. 80% of people in my country doesn’t speak english or at least fluently. They always choose they own language as an option. But English and other languages are available for foreigners. That’s what I’m curious about Japan
EDITED 3: I THINK I GOT IT NOW. THANKS FOR SOME GOOD ANSWERS!
7 comments
>I don’t think it costs anything much.
And I think you are wrong. I doubt it’s negligible amont of money to sublicense the subtitle translation, and the fee is usually per country/region.
Because they don’t own the rights to those English options.
To have English sports commentary, they’d have to hire their own commentators or pay to use another broadcasters commentary.
And Netflix Japan can only air what they get the rights for, so Netflix originals can have English subtitles, but something One Piece won’t because Toei doesn’t own the rights to the English version.
Like, this even applies to merchandise. For example I’ve known of Sailor Moon and Hello Kitty collections that couldn’t be shipped to Japan because of licensing.
>I don’t think it costs anything much.
For tv/movies/sports streaming it can cost more because often the English language commentary or subtitles are licensed separately (and might actually be owned by different copyright holders).
E.g. an anime might be owned by a Japanese company but its English voiceovers / opening & ending songs / subtitles might have been produced (and copyrighted) by a separate American company.
Now, probably the cost difference to license all the different versions for all markets isn’t massive, but it’s big enough for the bean counters to care about.
Because in Japan there are not enough English speakers to warrent such things.
The only way would be to have the Japanese hire a language localization team on the spot. The Japanese team would be able to clarify the nuances with the meaning of the words. Some foreign localization teams struggle with nuance, or just rewrite the dialogue to suit their biases. I.E. FUN1MAT1ON.
For some animes, you’re like ”Why even bother turning the subs on, it’s absolutely horrible”…, it hurts even worse when your Japanese language ability progresses, and you’re able to call out the B.S. when you hear it.
I know where you’re coming from, I think Amazon should have its own A.I. algorithm translate the dialogue because it’s better than nothing. Then, it would need permission from all its content providers as the fledgling AI wouldn’t be able to accurately convey the meaning of the dialogue in the anime.
Anglos lol
People here don’t watch the Premier League. There is no doubt they can do it. Hell, I’m watching Southampton v Leeds right now — with English commentary! Wolves v Fulham also available, and Aston Villa v Everton was also in English earlier.
Man City are the Champions, arsenal and Brighton have Japanese players so they go to extra effort to have Japan commentary for those games.
The Premier League sends out a world feed, which local broadcasters around the world pick up. Why SPOTV Now don’t provide the option for all games…I have no idea.