Korean vs. Japanese CD Version?

[Kisshu]

Anyone know what the difference is between the Korean, Hong Kong, and Japanese version of the Arashi "Time" CDs? They all look the same. Why the heck is the Japanese version like $10 more expensive on yesasia?! ~_~ Any ideas?

[yuubi]

my advice, buy at CD Japan instead... it counts in Oricon chart ranking.

[Ichigo19]

If you search around in help or the faq somewhere on yesasia.com it tells you the difference between the different versions but from what I remember...the language used on the covers and such "may" be different so that the people of the region can read it and such. Also with DVD/movies/games and all you would have different video formats but of course not with music CDs...

Thats all I can remember off the top of my head. I've always bought my music CDs from an ebay seller over in china. Only has like the top pop singers mostly tho ayumi, namie, la arc en ciel and if anything else I don't remember...but its quite cheap, with shipping it averages at about $10 for one CD and $8 for each additional CD so you could always try the china route... as always ebay is good for deals, though depending on your japanese ability you could try yahoo japan auctions which seems to be more used by japanese than ebay is. but that's just my intake of it, can't read all of yahoo yet...too many kanji I don't know.

[Oracle]

CDs by Japanese artists are so expensive in Japan because there is a thing called the "resale price maintenance system" (再販売価格維持契約 in Japanese) which means the record companies set the price a of CD and retailers are not allowed to ever sell it for less than that price ( no discounting of albums even if the retailers are willing to lose a little to move more stock etc.).

I imagine the official overseas-manufactured (Korean etc) versions are cheaper because they just set the price a bit lower for that local currency/market.

EDIT: Same system applies to books in Japan too btw: New books are always sold at the same price everywhere, no discounting :/