could someone please explain to me why america only gets about 1/4 of the games that come out to japan?
now if im wrong about the percent please tell me. now i understand some games might not come due to nudity and lack of
places to sell or tranlation issues. however if i look at himeya for example there are tons of games wether they are rpg,action,horror,adventure etc… however i know there are more than resident evil/silent hill for horror games in japan
however those seem to be the only ones we get in the states though why?
assuming that you are talking about console games here, then i think a huge part has to do with profit margin or simply: will the game in question have an appeal to the stateside audience? also many games are made by small companies which may not be big enough to have a distributor that works worldwide
narg and nande should be the experts on this one so i will let them speak now 
profit margin, licensing fees, amount of red-tape and ultimately sometimes the author does not want to sell to US or even Korea or China.
Lamuness and Jinnai pretty much cover it. Those are the core reasons. If you want a more boring answer: several reasons to be honest¬Ö sometimes individually and sometimes in combination. Just a few off the top of my head:
#1: Just like in America, lots of games in Japan are crap. I’d wager about a third of the stuff released there isn’t worth the plastic disc it’s printed on. If you ever get the chance to visit a game store in Japan, you’ll easily notice the huge amount of garbage titles.
#2: Culture specific. There are games that sell great in Japan, that wouldn’t sell so great in America. The latest adventure of Hello Kitty for example. There are also titles that are perceived as too risky or absurd: Metal Wolf Chaos comes to mind. Idol Master is another. Certain games in Japan can also be perceived as negative to American values: Princess Maker anyone?
#3: Lack of investor interest. You need money to license and translate a game… not to mention getting it rated, showing it at an E3, and finding distributors. The more obscure a titles is in Japan (its native homeland), the more difficult it is to convince investors (or your out of pocket budget) that it’s worth the time and effort. Niche games suffer for this.
#4: Lack of customer interest. Just because 1000 posters on the Internet are very vocal about Kawaii Mega Death getting release in the US, doesn’t mean millions of gamers are interested in it. Good sale demographics make it easier to convince investors (see #3) to bring a game over. If a certain market shows abysmal or not so great sales (bgames for example), it becomes more of an “out of pocket” deal.
#5: Competition. Believe or not, Japanese console companies fight against each other to find US distributors. Obviously mega groups like CAPCOM and Konami don’t give a hoot (they have their own American offices), but you’ve got dozens of little guys. This is where companies like Atlus come in¬Ö however companies like Atlus don’t have a massive budget (see #3 and #4 above). Sometimes these little guys eventually earn enough capital or confidence, to open their own American office (NIS and Marvelous come to mind) - but it’s an exception to the rule. And since my aforementioned rules of #1 and #2 above, not all games make the cut.
#6: No interest from the Japanese company. Doesn’t really apply to the console market, but it’s fairly common in the PC market. Some Japanese companies simply have ZERO interest in marketing outside of Japan. Why? Some think it’s a waste of time. Some believe they’ll open their own American office one day. Some see America as the land of software piracy, and have bad feelings against American gamers for that. Some are happy the way things are already, and don’t want the hassle of an American partner. Etc, etc, etc.
#7: License is too expensive. The gaming population of America is much larger than the gaming population of Japan (remember that “America” means the United States and Canada). Therefore if a title sells millions in Japan, they think it will sell times that in America. Thus they jack up the license price tag to insane amounts - or demand an unreasonable cut from the sales. Not worth the hassle.
#8: IP lawsuits. See the Robotech and Macross conflict as an example. Some games have an anime or manga license held by another company - depending on the wording of that contract, release of the game will result in some messy legal troubles. Not worth the hassle.
#9: No one wants to take a gamble. There are a lot of good games in Japan that probably would do great in America, if someone would make the attempt. Problem is no one wants to take the risk. It takes money to make money - and people don’t want to lose money. Not enough risk takers, for every title in Japan - and those who take too many risks, tend to go out of business (see Working Designs).
#10: Negotiations fail. Sometimes a Japanese company and the Americans can’t get along. Maybe it would cost too much to continue. Maybe someone has second thoughts. Maybe there’s a snafu and they hate each other. Maybe the American company goes out of business before it’s released. Maybe the Japanese company goes out of business. End result? Game gets canned and never sees the light in America. Bad feelings, make it that much harder to get the rejected title looked at again by another group. Gamers rarely get to hear about things like this… Sakura Taisen comes to mind.
To be fair, there are a lot of American games that never make to Japan. Knights of the Old Republic never got ported into Japanese, despite the large number of Star Wars fans in Japan (something they lament over). There’s a reasonably large import market for Western goods in Japan: PC software, comic books, game miniatures, etc. Sometimes people fail to see how green our grass is too.
i plan on going to japan for two weeks next september. i need to learn japanese language prior to that.
plus i thought learning would help me in alot of aspects one being able to play japanese games be it on a console or pc.
problem with japanese games are they are either expensive or limited in a description so its hard to weed
out the pathetic from good ones. plus i need to make up an itinerary of where to go or what to do when i get there.
i would love to compete in ninja warrior but i don’t know if i can go there on my trip. i plan on staying at at hotel in tokyo
could someone tell me if thats far from tokyo to that location. dont know how to properly say or spell that location.
The name of that show is SASUKE in Japan. The entry list to compete is a long one - several month backlog I’m told. There’s also a number of waivers and legal documents you have to sign before becoming a contestant. I’m not saying that it’s impossible for a tourist to get on the show, but I seriously doubt your chances are good… especially without being able to read the aforementioned documents (or have a lawyer to translate it). The show airs from a studio in Yokohama: a city not hard to find from Tokyo (only a few minutes via train; which DOZENS of lines run to - I personally take the Yokosuka lines, to talk to all the US sailors stationed there while taking the ride).
Not a fan of that show… so I really don’t know more than that.
True, but when most of the stuff you want comes from Japan and doesn’t get released vs. stuff in for North America that you like that never gets translated for the Japanese fans…