An American Ex-Pat Surveys The Landscape Of Netflix’s New Japanese Service

My family of five moved to Japan in January. It was on a visit a couple months earlier, one jet-lagged night under the hotel room bed sheet trying to shield my husband from the light of my iPhone, that I turned to my Netflix App looking to pass the time until I could justify getting up. I tapped the icon and discovered that Netflix did not exist in Japan. This had to be a mistake; some anomaly I could attribute to the hotel’s slow Wi-Fi. My under-the-sheet discovery immediately sent me on a mad burst of Googling to ascertain the truth and understand what my English-language media options were while resident in the Land of the Rising Sun. I did not uncover many alternatives. I was excited for the move, but had doubts. Up to this discovery, most of these doubts were proving resolvable. This snag, however, seemed intractable. Suddenly this Netflix void became more of an obstacle to overcome than getting my children whole-wheat bread in the land of rice.

Friends and family who read this will be surprised to learn of my dismay. I have done an excellent job maintaining the image that my household eschews television. Honestly, I have spent years not having a television and, after that, only having one to play DVDs. I am picky about what I watch; I need to know ahead of time that it will be worth my while. Consequently, I will never be on the cusp of breaking TV and media trends. It’s more my style to binge watch Breaking Bad, Big Love, Weeds, The Sopranos, Alias, etc. months or years after the series have wrapped.

My austere approach to media consumption has eased. Partly, I have motherhood to thank for this. Television has no equal in those times when you really just need your kids to be quiet. Not to mention, it is a blissful evening escape after my three blessings have exhausted my ability to communicate in coherent sentences. Clearly I needed to plug this media hole in my Japan plans. I considered using a proxy server to trick Netflix into thinking my computer was still in the U.S., but I was concerned about my machine’s safety. Ultimately, I bought a subscription to Hulu Japan. However, eight months into my Japanese life I was feeling I had fully explored its English-language library and, while I was grateful to Hulu.jp for entertaining me through one season of House of Cards, two seasons of Modern Family and four seasons of Glee, I needed a new source.

Enter, finally, Netflix. Earlier this month, Netflix launched their Japanese site, Netflix.jp. Now, for ¥950 a month ($8 USD), I can watch Netflix in HD. After spending a week with my new account, I believe I have learned another lesson in the grass-is-always-greener. At least at this stage, Netflix Japan’s menu of offerings is not appreciably better than Hulu.jp. In fact, Hulu.jp seems to have more depth in its English-language content, especially if I cared to get nostalgic with something like Ally McBeal, A-Team or Columbo.

I have begun a new relationship with the Netflix original series, Bloodline. A few episodes in, I am hooked by the mystery even though its all over the place with its flashbacks and its characters near constant alcohol consumption makes me crave a drink with a power I believed only Mad Men could evoke. In the realm of currently in-production TV programs like Downton Abbey and Homeland, most of what is available on Netflix Japan is old enough that I already viewed its original airing in the US or it was already available to me on Hulu.jp. After catching up with Bloodline, I have my eye on Marco Polo, Damages, Chef’s Table and Better Call Saul.

Understandably, Netflix Japan’s site is tailored to a Japanese audience, but I am disappointed at the number of opportunities there are for viewing Japanese content with English subtitles. Japanese friends have recommended a wildly colorful costume drama called Sakuran (see above) which chronicles the life of a high-class woman of pleasure in Japan circa 1700 and looks to be in the style of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet and The Great Gatsby. A close second on my Japanese films to watch list is a documentary called Jiro Dreams of Sushi about the unassuming 89-year-old Jiro Ono who operates a ten-seat sushi bar in a Tokyo subway station and is regarded as the best sushi chef in the world. Just to give you an idea of his renown, President Obama ate at Jiro’s shop when he visited Tokyo last year.

Solely because it seems so weird, a Japanese fantasy film called Thermae Romae (see above) piques my interest with a completely Japanese cast portraying a group of time-travelling bathing enthusiasts (!) from ancient Rome. (Take THAT, Hot Tub Time Machine.) Even with my passable Japanese abilities, I would require some serious subtitling to understand what is going on here.

Netflix Japan has a decent library of older English-language movies and children’s titles, but there are shockingly few new releases. By my count, there are only 20 non-Japanese films with a release date in 2015. Of these, only one is recognizable to me, The Other One: The Long Strange Trip of Bob Weir (see above). Coming of age in the early ’90s and fancying myself somewhat of a Dead Head, this does hold some redeeming value.

Fuji Television in Japan has partnered with Netflix to produce Netflix original content in the same way Netflix US has produced Orange is the New Black and House of Cards. Underwear is one of these Fuji TV-produced programs about a young woman from a small town who goes to Tokyo to work in the lingerie industry. Happily, this Fuji-produced program does have an English subtitle option and I fully intend to get educated about the cutthroat world of panty design in the world’s biggest city.

Obviously, Netflix Japan is in its infancy; its content will likely keep expanding. In the meantime, I am happy to fold it into my media repertoire and I am actually refreshed to learn that it is not the all-powerful media monolith I believed it to be all those months ago under the hotel room bed sheet.

Kristin Jordan currently lives in Nagoya, Japan where she also lived 12 years ago before smart phones, streaming and kids. She loved Japan the first time and finds it even better with all the extras.