D&D General The rise and fall of D&D in Japan

[Masaki Yanagida]

When Red Box was translated in Japan 40 years ago, it sold 100,000 sets in one year.
On the other hand, the Japanese version of PHB5e sold less than 10,000 copies from 2017 to 2021.
Since around 1990, domestically produced Sword World RPGs have dominated the Japanese RPG scene, and D&D has always been in second place or lower, although the top position has changed in various ways since then.
Since 2022, WotC has been selling the Japanese version directly, but their promotional activities have been a bit off.

I wrote an article about this.
The rise and fall of D&D in Japan

What about the localization of D&D in other non-English speaking countries?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I shouldn't say an opinion about the Japanese society if I don't know it enough but I suspect teenages and young adults are too busy to enjoy free time, and their homes are too small to can play board games together in a group. They would rather fast creation of characters for one-shot session. Here Ravenloft 5 Ed show the "survivor class", with an alternate leveling up for games more focused into horror and where the fight is not the best option.

Who could be interested into D&D brand? Mangaka aspirants publishing their own webcomics to introduce their work, wannabe idols in actual-play shows to prove her roleplaying talent, videogame studios who dream with release a superhit style "Final Fantasy". WotC could be the sponsor of some Japanese actual-play show, or webcomic.

How can you sell pizza if Japaneses would rather to eat okonomiyaki? Then you have to know what the native consumer wants to buy

* Any new about an official D&D setting created by and for Japaneses? I suspect Japaneses would rather titles created in their own land, they don't want be "tainted" by foreigne soft power.

* Could we see 5e Anime in D&D Beyond?

* I doubt seriously Japanese players to be interested into their own version of "Adventures in Rokugan".

 

[Paul Farquhar]

D&D became popular in the US because large basements are common?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I have searched and somebody in a forum said board games in Japan is relatively a small industry, and most of times the titles are self-published. If they aren't party games then it is for children with educational intentions. Japanese would rather cards like Magic or Yugioh.

 

[TheSword]

Are there many folks playing online in Japan? Are their foreign language versions of DDB or Roll20 etc?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I'm not Japanese, but I have run D&D games in Japan (though most of my players were gaijin). It does seem that my friends that live there do have some trouble finding a game.

 

[Tonguez]

RPGs in general tend to be small communities outside of the US, and in Japan and Korea DnD is second fiddle to other systems like the local Sword World and Call of Cthulhu.

One interesting phenomena which may add credence to the ‘small space’ observation is the prevalence of One-on-One sessions (just the DM and one player) playing through intimate social encounters

 

[jdrakeh]

RPGs in general tend to be small communities outside of the US, and in Japan and Korea DnD is second fiddle to other systems like Sworld and Call of Cthulhu.

This is a good point. A few years ago, I stumbled across a bunch of Japanese Call of Cthulhu stuff that I flipped for a ridiculous profit owing to that popularity.

 

[GuardianLurker]

A for other languages, I've heard (unsubstantiated) that Hasbro/WotC has ended localization efforts & sales in Brazil.

I suspect their localization efforts outside of the European Languages are miniscule. Even in the euro-region, I'd be surprised if they translated to anything other than French, German, and Spanish.

 

[aco175]

@Masaki Yanagida welcome to the boards, great topic.

If the red box sold 100,000 copies, then the answer is simple...