What I don't understand is why they don't simply renegotiate the original contract to have intenational use for their spoken dialogue? Obviously, money is an issue - but when you're negotiating money to someone, and the option is - "here is extra money for work you've already done, the alternative is that we simply dub english over it and remove the original voice over."
It's a pretty strong bargaining chip to say here is free money, it's not much - but if you don't agree to it then we'll simply redub and you get nothing at all.
I think we'd ALL like to know the answer to that question -- fans and industry representatives alike.
Best answer I can come up with comes with an anecdote. As many of you probably know, I used to live and work in Japan as an assistant junior high English teacher through the JET Programme. At the time, I had a lot of fellow non-Japanese friends, many of whom came to Japan along with their significant others.
One such friend had pretty much never experienced ANYTHING Japanese before -- he had absolutely no exposure to the culture or society before tagging along with his girlfriend(-->fiancee-->wife) on her JET experience. And because of this, he, more than anyone else I knew, was constantly blown away by all the strange and foreign things Japan had to offer. One of his popular quotes was "Ah, Japan!", which he would say anytime he was introduced to something you just never see in the U.S. (like, say, vending machines that dispense hot lunches).
His other quote, which he said anytime we would ever suggest doing something outside of our normal routine, was: "But... it's never been done before!" (imagine speaking this line with sarcasm literally DRIPPING from every syllable).
And this latter quote came about because of one aspect of modern Japanese society that I think anyone who's ever lived there will be quite familiar with: an absolute reliance on routine.
See, Japanese society is big on tradition, and Japanese social groups tend to establish new traditions very quickly. And once a tradition has been established, it's sort of an unwritten rule that you do NOT defy it. It's kind of like how people always say you can never customize an order at a Japanese restaurant -- you tell them "hold the tomatoes," and they'll just stare at you like you're crazy!
This applies to just about every facet of daily life in modern Japanese society, and accounts for a lot of the bureaucracy people often cite when describing Japanese business practices. If you ever stop to ask a Japanese businessman WHY he insists on doing something a certain way, there's a very, very good chance he won't have any real answer for you -- but unfortunately, there's also a very, VERY HIGH chance that you'll make him EXTREMELY uncomfortable by asking.
And yes, sometimes these sorts of questions do need to be asked, and "traditions" need to be broken or revised. But dealing with Japanese businesses can often be a delicate dance, and you never want to be too pushy if you're denied a request, because doing so could make the company feel uncomfortable dealing with you, and potentially jeopardize any future dealings you might have with them.
...Note that this is all armchair theory on my part, based on two years spent in suburban Japan a decade ago, so I could be totally off-base here. But if I had to guess as to why Japanese companies are so hesitant to change the ways they deal with international voice-acting licenses... well, I think my friend Mike put it best: "It's never been done before!"
-Tom
