GOG's made some pretty big strides in their offerings as of late, and for the most part, the library is filling out nicely. The one place where the store is sorely lacking right now, though, is in its selection of Japanese games.

Right now, GOG has a few. There's Deadly Premonition, La Mulana, Guilty Gear XX #Reload, and Street Fighter Alpha 2. GGXX#R is a woefully outdated version of that game and SFA2 is a bad port, so they're barely worth mentioning. Maybe there are a few others I forgot, but the lineup is, quite frankly, pathetic.

Where's Capcom, beyond that shoddy SFA2 port? Where's Devil May Cry 4, Resident Evil 5, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Dead Rising 2, and the upcoming Strider?

Where's Sega? Sonic Generations, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, Jet Set Radio HD, and Binary Domain would be fantastic to have DRM-free... not to mention all the strategy games currently under Sega's banner, like Company of Heroes and the Total War series.

Where's Konami? I would kill for a DRM-free copy of Metal Gear Rising, and I'm sure some poor soul might want to slog through Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

And what about all the more niche titles, like the Falcom games published by XSEED (Ys, Trails in the Sky), the just-announced Killer is Dead port, or the soon-to-be-released PC port of Treasure's Ikaruga?

These games would lend a heaping of variety to GOG's lineup. The character action and JRPG genres are non-existent (Silver, Anachronox, Septerra Core really don't scratch that itch), and even some of the over-represented genres on GOG, like platformers, would benefit from a bit of Japanese panache. That, and most of these games are ideal fodder for those who have their gaming PC hooked up to their TV for "comfy couch" gaming. There simply aren't enough of those in the store right now. Japanese publishers are really starting to double down on PC releases for both their new games and re-releases of older titles, and getting them on-board could only be a good thing for GOG going forward.

I realize it's easy for some to dismiss this as "GOG losing their focus on old games," but the simple fact of the matter is that the site is diversifying its offerings. Getting Japanese publishers on-board could bring some old games onto the service (namely, some of Sega, Falcom, and Capcom's back catalogs), but it'd bring a lot of modern classics into the fold, as well. For fans of those genres that Japan specializes in, DRM-free releases would be a massive boon for the store.

So, why do we see so few Japanese games on GOG? Is it a lack of interest on GOG's part? Is it the language barrier (which Treasure previously cited as a difficulty when working with Valve to get Ikaruga on Steam)? Is it a hesitance on the publishers' part to put out DRM-free versions of their games? And, more importantly, what can we do about it?

I like to see Square release Final Fantasy 1,4, and 6 with those improved 2D graphics on PC and Final Fantasy Tactics.

Short version:

Japanese companies love DRM and love hardware. For the most part, they also cannot into PCs. Just look at the Dark Souls port.

A LOT of Japanese devs believe in DRM. Just check the Kickstarter's which have japanese devs onboard. Many of them either decline to offer or mention drm free at all.

Short answer: Japanese corporations.

Crappy ports are more the exception than the rule, at this point. Yes, Dark Souls was borked, and so was Deadly Premonition, but pretty much everything Capcom, Sega, Konami, and others have put out in the last several years have been great. Devil May Cry 4, for example, still strikes me as one of the most visually appealing games out there, and it looked and ran incredible even on the day it first hit PC.

Japanese relationship with PC is shite.It's a miracle crapcapom finally started making decent pc ports for their games.

with that said I would kill for Silent Hill 1-4 on GoG

Oh, that's crazy - I had no idea. I remember that, at first, XSEED's deal with Falcom was just for Steam releases. I've bought all of those games on Steam, but I'd rebuy them in an instant if they hit GOG. Would be doubly amazing if the Trails in the Sky games came to GOG when XSEED finally releases them.

I'm also curious if Steins;Gate will see a GOG release, seeing as how that's a huge deal for JastUSA. The retail release is DRM-free, so it's hardly necessary, but again, it couldn't hurt.

Laws to do with content perhaps.

I dont know many people interested in playing a tentacle monster raping teenage girls, oh wait isnt that tv..

On a serious note and perhaps more politically correct. Id like to see more jrpgs, final fantasy has been mentioned, drm free last remnant? Yes please.
Also mech games we need more of them, i dunno if the Japanese devs bother with them but id love to see some new non mmo mech games.

As far as recently released, there's also Metal Slug 3 which was released on Steam last week. I already bought it there but love the series, so I'd get it here DRM free. At full price if it has any decent extras. There's also BlazBlue but it's nerfed with no online play, still though not bad for 10 bucks.

I personally would like to see some Japanese PC games with...stuff...stuffy stuff that is... stuffy.

On a more serious note it would be nice to see some visual novels make their way onto GOG, but that is very unlikely.

I definitely support the idea of more games by Asian/Japanese publishers here on GOG, if there's any chance for that. There's a few titles by Sega, Capcom or Konami I'd love to have a DRM free copy of.
That too, if they're actually good ones.

A little side note to the OP and maybe I'm showing my age, but Konami has always put out top quality games. :D When I was a kid I didn't care what the game was, if the NES cartridge said 'Konami' on it then I BOUGHT IT!!!! Contra and Jackal remain timeless.

Some will say Capcom did alright but I always hated their NES games; they were too damn hard.

Actually, even the Japanese devs have been rather supportive of DRM free; Mighty No. 9 and Unsung Story (although the latter technically doesn't count since it is primarily being made by a western developer along with some high profile Japanese devs) will both have a DRM-free version. I was shocked since my expectation was exactly what you said, but so far, this hasn't been the case. In fact, the studio that I think has been the worst in this regard has been WayForward; they're one of the few to not mention DRM-free at all and they are a Western studio.

Anyway, as for the main topic...it quite simply comes down to the fact that Japanese publishers/developers love their DRM more than they love themselves. Even when it comes to older games, most of them wouldn't even consider DRM-free even with games that have been pirated to hell and back for years (FF VII being a notable example). It doesn't help that a lot of them also tend to be very conservative and set in their ways; honestly, it was a miracle that they've even started giving the PC platform decent support in recent times.

I wouldn't be surprised if the reason why Capcom hasn't released anything beyond the SFA2 port is because of staunch opposition from the Japanese HQ. Same with Square Enix. Frankly, the only way I can see Japanese PC games coming on the service is if they were published outside Japan by a (semi-)western publisher to begin with (which is why we got Deadly Premonition). And even then, it's only a maybe.

Considering Castlevania and Contra are considered to be among the hardest games on the NES, I find this statement more than a little ironic.