I was asking myself the same thing. And not much anime either.
Even Japanese as a subtitling language is too often forbidden on Viki.
I’ve also seen that there aren’t much J-drama’s. I like to watch them, although I haven’t seen many yet. I liked the drama’s ‘The hours of my life’ and ‘The girls speech’
@bozoli What do you mean Japaanese is forbidden as a subbing language on Viki? Isn’t it free for everyone to sub in the language they know?
2 Likes
In theory it should be. But, no, sometimes it’s forbidden to sub in Japanese. And sometimes the Japanese team starts translating, but then they get the word that they are no longer allowed to and that their subtitles are going to be removed.
And the ironic part is that Rakuten, the company that owns Viki, is Japanese.
5 Likes
Oh, I didn’t know that happened. It’s really strange.
1 Like
i’m interested in the Taiga dramas (year-long historicals) but those have 50+ episodes… if they come on viki it’ll be a big task to complete the subs. DF actually has 2 taiga dramas as exclusives.
1 Like
I love Jdrama too, that’s how I got into Kdrama. I saw quite a lot of them elsewhere. Would love to see more Jdrama on Viki. But I heard the license process for Japanese content is complicated. Not for Viki alone but in general Japan likes to keep things more for themselves so getting a license is hard and most likely when they are willing to give a license they ask a lot of money and come with a set of rules which might not work out. As for limited Japanese subs, I have a channel where eventually the Japanese subs where locked because the content owner did request it.
I had hoped that now Viki is Rakuten’s (which is a Japanese company) it would lead to more Jdrama on Viki but I guess not 
5 Likes
I have been wondering why…
I actually sent Viki many license request forms for Japanese drama, but even fan channels where never created…
3 Likes
It’s true that the quantity of J-drama has shockingly plummeted in the past couple of years. As in … zero.
2015:
- Taiwan: 29 shows, of which 3 variety.
- China: 41 dramas
- Japan: 15 dramas
- Korea: 85 shows (of which 7 variety) and 3 or 4 films
2016:
- Taiwan: 16 dramas,
- China: 43 dramas
- Japan: none (only 1 fan channel which was never licensed)
- Korea: 80 shows (of which 3 or 4 variety) and 3 films
2017 (so far):
- Taiwan: 3 dramas
- China: 14 dramas
- **Japan:**none
- Korea: 22 dramas so far, of which 7 on air and 2 coming soon plus 1 film and of course a number of fan channels awaiting license.
Dudie’s post explains why.
1 Like
really interesting!
I think this is unfair!
I’d like to watch so many other Japanese dramas!
I speak English, Japanese and native Portuguese, I vonlunteer as subtitler on Viki and would like to help subtitling J-dramas, but for now I don’t think it will happen…
2 Likes
Hi guys,
I joined viki for J-dramas so it’s really sad to see there are only such few there.
But one can suggest different TV shows to viki!
There is a section where you can send requests, so maybe if a lot of people send requests, they’ll add more!!
(You will have to request a specific show tho, you cannot just request more J-dramas… )
3 Likes
Yes while i enjoy k-dramas very much i really enjoy j-dramas the most and i am quite disappointed in Viki and if Japan itself is responsible for the lack of access to j-dramas i am very disappointed in them it seems strange that a nation who manga and anime is so widely distributed would be so stingy with their wonderful dramas, come on Viki get with it and work on getting more J-dramas on to your service!!!
2 Likes
I wouldn’t say that they like keeping things to themselves, it’s just that for Japan, streaming dramas isn’t as common. I’ve seen a few great ones on Netflix Japan (Good Morning Call) or Amazon Prime Japan (Kyoto Love Story), but these were lower budget dramas with lesser known actors/actresses (or the can’t or don’t demand a high pay) -don’t let that deter you from watching them, they’re high quality dramas with laser known actors is all. In Japan where buying the DVD sets are more of a norm, having thousands of people stream their content is more of a loss than a plus for them. They’d hardly be making anything.
did you receive the viki notice that they are adding Nov. 1st, 4 Japanese contents and it’s licensed… I’m sure Jap/Eng subbers will be needed 
2 Likes
That’s unfortunate. Japanese TV is pretty awful to say the least. I would have preferred more Chinese shorts shows or even Thai shows. Japan is bottom tier quality - down there with Hong Kong.
Hopefully the shows being licensed are good ones or ones that I enjoy. Generally Japanese stuff is too heavily based on anime and silly to the point where it’s annoying and no longer funny. Even the serious dramas are filled with ridiculous and silly stuff.
People, checkout the Nov 1st coming new Japanese content, they will need Jap-Eng subbers:
https://discussions.viki.com/t/announcement-new-japanese-shows-dramas-sub-a-thon-info/17553?u=simi11
2 Likes
It’s truly unfortunate that you see it that way, as a lot of dramas are quite the masterpiece. Viki doesn’t typically seem to get the license for popular dramas in Japan. If we’re talking about something thats too unrealistic and would only happen out of manga etc. there are a lot of Chinese, Thai, and Korean dramas like that -ones that also happen to be very popular. (When you were sleeping, W, Coffee Prince, My girlfriend is a Gumiho, Scarlet Heart, Scarlet Heart Ryeo, U-Prince //practically every Thai drama…and this is coming from a half thai person. The storylines are generally recycled with one person being rich, one bring poor, an evil underhanded female rival, the caring parents, etc etc.) Still I find dramas from everywhere, except for China and Hong Kong usually just because they do a lot of fantasy genre dramas, and I’m not a fan of those, enjoyable.
If I may, I have some Japanese dramas that I’d like to recommend to you!
Love That Makes You Cry, Koinaka, Pretty Proofreader, H2(which is based off a manga, but it’s realistic), Orange, Code Blue (all seasons), Tokyo Tarareba Girls, Pride, Ace wo Nerae (the live action drama), Tokyo bandwagon, Nobuta wo Produce, Ryuusei No Kizuna, Taiyou no Uta.
Some of them yes, but there are quite a few good ones too.
“Second to Last Love”
Love Affairs in the Afternoon
Jin, and
Ghostwriter.
The thing I don’t like is that they have a tendency to end very badly, with someone getting a terminal illness and dying.
I think as a whole, the Japanese entertainment market isn’t great at or willing to export its products. Just look at Japanese music videos on Youtube. There are very few or they are shortened versions.
I just happened to read an article about Japan’s “Cool Japan” initiative. It’s a campaign with the purpose of spreading Japanese culture. Apparently, it’s been reported as a complete flop and waste of tax payer money. They invested in expensive department stores in foreign countries. I think they can stand to learn from South Korea’s open-policy in regards to media exports. I do miss the Hana Yori Dango days.
1 Like
I know a lot of dramas are based on manga even Chinese, Korean and Thai dramas…
I would say these countries have done a much better job on average (not all the time) adapting the content to a live action show. It’s hard to judge the entire Japanese industry because I don’t watch very much. I usually pick up the ones people are fawning over like Kahogo no Kahoko. I watch them and then wonder “what is it people see in this drama, it’s not bad but it’s not very good”.
Silly, childish and ridiculous come up too often in my mind when I think of a Japanese show or movie I watched. Even the shows I enjoyed I could use those descriptions - Rental No Koi and Million Yen Women. Ridiculous. Silly. Superficial. Sometimes childish. I did like those shows.
I’ll edit to add a show based on manga I really enjoyed: Nobunaga Concerto. It was silly, childish and ridiculous at times but unlike many other Japanese shows - it managed to be serious, emotional and compelling at other times.
I think Japan has done well with anime. I know a lot of people who grew up watching dubbed Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z. You have that niche group that continued to love anime as they aged. But yeah every other cultural export - they have done very poorly relative to South Korea and even China now.
We will see. I’ve seen a progressive increase in Japanese content on Netflix. Viki is now licensing content.
It seems Japan is trying to make their content more accessible and more convenient. They have the 2020 Olympics. It’s pretty much now or never for them.
They have a long and documented history, a royal family, mature cultural industries and a major global event in a few years that gets people to pay attention to them. If they fail to capitalize they have only themselves to blame.
South Korea and China have done much better in different ways. South Korea has exported its culture through a conscious and coordinated effort. South Korea tried to understand what people like and dislike and did some tweaking based on that. South Korean government, companies and entertainment industries all came together.
China has sent and continues to send millions of kids abroad to universities throughout the world. I bet you I could walk on the campus of any university in my city and I could find a Chinese government sponsored language learning center. I could likely find a scheduled “travel to China!” event encouraging tourism to China too. I went to school with a ton of Chinese students. They also seem to be licensing content to Netflix, they have been to Viki for a while. I see a lot of their shows on Youtube and some get subtitles on there.
Part of me wonder if this is an ignorant, bumbling and poorly thought out attempt to counter Korea’s dominance in the region. Every now and then a Japanese politician or entertainer will say something negative about Korean content existing in Japan and call for a boycott or something. If they’re serious they will get a panel of foreigners such as Chinese, Korean, etc… to provide honest opinions that the Japanese government and industries can reflect on. But self-reflection is severely lacking while chest-thumping has been too prevalent.
2 Likes