Japan's Response to John's Response to Justin Sevakis Part 1

[John]

Japanese readers have compiled five rebuttals to my Will the Japanese Anime Industry Innovate to Address Future Challenges? "Ask John" article. Below is the first.

First, you argue that Japan should be condemned in the first place since it shamelessly supplies tons of fansubs. Fault. When someone illegally uploads/distributes Japanese animation from our country to abroad, it may be a domestic problem of Japan. However, why do you not mention the fact that hardcore anime fans from outside of Japan do the fansubbing? The fault here should be correctly attributed to the fans doing the fansubbing.

On the contrary, my article primarily addressed the problem of video piracy. In that case, merely distributing anime video footage without authorization is a violation of international copyrights and copyright owner rights. The act of uploading a video without authorization is illegal. Adding a translation to that video footage is merely compounding another crime atop the initial crime. If original Japanese uploaders did not engage in video piracy, international fan translators would have no source material to fansub.

My original article shared blame between Japanese and international anime fans. I believe that such an assessment is fair and accurate. I reject the claim that Japanese fans uploading video footage illegally is a "domestic problem of Japan" because it is precisely this action that directly contributes to the existence of fansubs. To use an analogy, drug dealers on street corners may distribute illicit drugs to consumers, but they are equally guilty with the original distributors in South American and Asian countries that originally ship the drugs overseas. The Columbian drug cartels are not a Columbian domestic problem; they are an international problem. I think that attempts to argue that Japanese uploaders are not as guilty of video piracy as American fan translators is an attempt to avoid responsibility.

[SDF/Draven]

Im curious about who these "Japanese Fans" are.

Are they Japan localed people replying to your article, or just Japanese of decent located "wherever" in the world?

Was your article translated from original English into Japanese?; Then had Japanese written questions that were translated back into English?; which had your English answers to those questions translated back to Japanese?


It seems like the questioner didnt read your original article and fully understand it before writing the question (which is why Im wondering if there could be a translation discrepancy if there were translations going back and forth between the answers and questions themeselves)

[Mr March]

I'd have to agree with SDF/Draven. It sounds as if your article was misrepresented, either by accident or intentionally. Other than that, the only explanation is the rebutting fan is not reading your accurately translated articles correctly.

In either case, you wrote a very good counter rebuttal on your part.

[John]

These five points are condensed summaries, compiled by the Japanese "Ask John Fan Club" translator, of responses to the Japanese language translation of my original article made by readers living in Japan.

While I have faith in the ability of the "Ask John Fan Club" translator to properly translate my articles into Japanese language, there is a possibility that some small discrepencies in the Japanese language translation led to misinterpretation by readers in Japan.

[Tidusauron12]

Originally Posted by John

These five points are condensed summaries, compiled by the Japanese "Ask John Fan Club" translator, of responses to the Japanese language translation of my original article made by readers living in Japan.

While I have faith in the ability of the "Ask John Fan Club" translator to properly translate my articles into Japanese language, there is a possibility that some small discrepencies in the Japanese language translation led to misinterpretation by readers in Japan.

Please... if it becomes apparent that misinterpretation becomes a problem in these exchanges, do something to alleviate the problem. I'd really appreciate it.

You know, because nothing is worse than an argument in which those involved can't even accurately understand each other.

[Starchild]

An employee of Anime Nation enjoys fansubs, though.

[ZeroRyoko1974]

I wonder if Wal Mart getting into the Japanese retail market could cause a shift towards lower prices to compete. Maybe even the anime industry will lower prices to compete with Wal Mart
http://www.walmartstores.com/GlobalW...te.do?catg=377

[greg]

Oh no... Wal Mart in Japan? They're taking over Seiyu. As long as they keep the Seiyu name, and don't start bullying suppliers and tanking the local manufacturing economy, then I guess I don't mind.

[HSaabedra]

Originally Posted by greg

Oh no... Wal Mart in Japan? They're taking over Seiyu. As long as they keep the Seiyu name, and don't start bullying suppliers and tanking the local manufacturing economy, then I guess I don't mind.

They've had control of Seiyu for 6 years, so it's unlikely they'll be making drastic changes or else they would have happened the first year.

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by Axl X

They've had control of Seiyu for 6 years, so it's unlikely they'll be making drastic changes or else they would have happened the first year.

Walmart seems to be smart enough to realize that their US business model would not only fail miserably in Japan, it would probably end with angry mobs burning their stores to the ground if they built the type of superstores they have in the US.
Japan likes to buy things that seem high quality (or are), not the cheapest crap possible. Or maybe I should say that the cultural stigma associated with buying the cheapest possible things is far FAR worse than in america (obviously even Japanese people would prefer prices be low).