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Originally Posted by Sun_Tze
Ok... a question for the Japan-living members.
Is it true that japanese publishing houses (Akita Shoten, Shogakukan, Shueisha) can be quite... demanding with foreign publishing companies?
I'm asking this because we had a few troubles with the printing prices of our manga releases, and had to raise the final price of them. Akita Shoten went ballistic and demanded we sent a guy over there to make a new contract.
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Since the publishing houses are usually the owners to the title rights of specific property, it is normal for them to take initiative over licensing agreements, including pricing related bargaining matters.
It would be standard practice to stipulate such agreements in writing, whether it be in the body of the contract (agreement) or as an addendum.
In many cases, an agreed (preferred) list price of the final product is determined subsequently to negotiation between the involved parties (licensor and licensee), and delineated in the agreement.
However, Japanese publishing companies (licensors) usually have no legal control of the other parties' (licencees) retail cover pricing of the said property (manga/tankoubon), as it may violate Fair Trade/Anititrust laws.
If in your case, the publishing houses are complaining about the cover price being too low, they would probably only have a case if the pricing is deemed to be an act of dumping (predatory pricing), which I doubt, since most agreements of the like are of exculsive/proprietary nature.
If the complaint towards you is of a price comparative perspective between the corresponding territories (countries), I construe that they have no case, do to the following reasons:
1. Pursuant to the aforementioned comments, this is of a nature which, by standard business practices, must be addressed during the negotiation stages and stipulated in the contract/agreement, whether it is by an addendum or by other means. Of course in your case, this could pertain to such stages, wherein renegotiations may be viable, but surely cannot preclude the justification of your decisions.
2. Localization of the property is inclusive of the economic conditions of the corresponding territory(ies), wherein direct application of the exchange rate of the said property would not be feasible. In other words, even if the retail price (conversion rate) of the final product is substantially lower than its equivalent in Japan, it does not mean that it will tarnish the image. R1 DVDs, which are bargain deals compared to the R2 originals, are living proof of that.
3. In the same way as a manufacturer cannot designate wholesale/retail pricing (price fixing/cartel), the licensor does not have jurisdiction over the pricing decisions of the licensee. The fallacy of the Japanese retail industry is the existence of the resale price maintenance practice, notably for intellectual property such as publications (manga tankoubon/ magazines) and recorded material (CDs (caveat: DVDs are an exception)). If the Japanese publisher believes that this practice is only way to ensure profits, the you can tell him that it is illegal in your homeland.
All in all, this is just my personal thoughts coming from my experience with general trading issues, thus it may not be applicable in your case. Japanese companies are quite feeble when it comes to contract matters, and chances are the person in charge has no idea of the contents.
Good luck with your business, and it this post serves as any reference, I'll be obliged.