WWE steps up push in Japan market
By YURI KAGEYAMA

TOKYO (AP) — Posing proudly for a snapshot with a glittery championship belt, Seigi Nishiyama is among some 600 other sports fans packing a Tokyo theater who can't get enough of World Wrestling Entertainment.

"The stories are so much more detailed compared to Japanese wrestling it's like watching a movie," the 34-year-old food manufacturer employee said Sunday, wearing a black T-shirt featuring the Undertaker, a WWE wrestler.

World Wrestling Entertainment's big push to step up its Japan business is nowhere clearer than at the SummerSlam Festival, a raucous party charging 3,500 yen ($30) admission for an en-masse viewing of WWE pay-per-view videos on giant screens.

The videos can also be watched at home. But the event brings some extra fun — guest wrestlers flown in from the U.S., booths selling WWE T-shirts and keychains as well as plenty of camaraderie with a niche but seriously dedicated crowd.

The U.S. entertainment and sports company, based in Stamford, Conn., racks up annual global sales in pay-per-view of $100 million. It won't disclose regional breakdowns, but it sees this country as one of its most important overseas markets.
The latest push is spearheaded by the WWE's first Japan office, which opened earlier this year — its only overseas office devoted to a single nation.
The office hopes to woo Japanese newcomers, including teens and families, not just the usual fans in their 20s to 40s.

It remains to be seen whether WWE can follow in the footsteps of earlier successful American imports, including Hollywood movies, hip-hop music and Disneyland.

Japan has its own brand of professional wrestling that is less outright fictional than WWE. The WWE is open about how no real fighting is involved. Historically inspired by its American counterpart, Japanese wrestling boasts its own heroes and themes.
WWE's only Japanese Superstar Shoichi Funaki, 40, who goes by his ring name Funaki, acknowledged Japanese are just starting to enjoy WWE — with all its boisterous exchanges and flamboyance, complete with heckling, not just focusing on winning or losing.
"Japanese fans are changing," he told The Associated Press. "The key is to give them more opportunities to watch WWE. If they see it, they'll get it."

Funkai said working with the WWE entails communicating a created character as a full-fledged entertainer, not just an athlete, besides the more obvious challenges such as mastering English and staying in top-notch shape.

WWE TV shows feature three ongoing story lines, each with their set of characters, called Raw, SmackDown and ECW, or Extreme Championship Wrestling. Viewing events like Sunday's unveils the climax of the tales. The stories then take a new turn and continue toward the next climax.

"Even if you've never watched it before, you can jump in and start watching because it's good vs. evil," said Ed Wells, Vice President and General Manager and WWE Japan. "We always refer to ourselves as sports entertainment. We created that genre in the U.S. And it's something that we are now, as of this year, taking really worldwide."

Takayuki Hioki of Sports Marketing Japan, which runs WWE's Web and mobile businesses here, says WWE can grow popular in the same way major league baseball has caught on with Japanese baseball fans.

The WWE mobile Web site, which offers ringtones, screen wallpaper and video clips, already has 35,000 users in Japan, who pay 300 yen ($3) a month for the service, Hioki said.

Atsushi Onita, a Japanese wrestler who is not with the WWE and a former legislator, who is respected as a social figure in Japan, said the WWE can boost its chances for success by making cultural adjustments such as headhunting stars who appeal to Japanese tastes — perhaps a sumo-wrestling champion.

But Onita was hopeful WWE's arrival would boost the popularity of wrestling overall that he believes is getting bashed by newer combat sports like K-1.

"Japanese are a very suppressed people. And so it takes a special kind of performance skill to fire up their passion. You can't overdo it," he said in a telephone interview. "But I wish WWE all the best."

Source: WNW