Ringer Huw did some research and got the rest of the story for Japanese Tolkien fans:<\/p>\n
“It looks like LOTR fans in Japan will have a lot longer to wait for the first movie than in other countries.<\/p>\n
The first teaser trailer is only now making an appearance in Japanese movie theaters ahead of current releases such as “Fifteen Minutes”, and a senior source within the local distributor says that FOTR will NOT be released in Japan until next year around 2002 March, if not even later.<\/p>\n
The delayed release schedule is totally contrary to New Line’s stated goal of a worldwide simultaneous release on December 19th with the minimum necessary number of countries slipping into the New Year. The exception is particularly striking considering Japan’s status as the world’s second-largest economy and one of Hollywood’s biggest and most lucrative overseas markets.<\/p>\n
As an independent New Line historically used a number of distribution companies in Japan including Gaga and Shochiku-Fuji. Despite now being part of AOL Time Warner, New Line continues to use different distributors for each picture rather than Warner Japan, and FOTR is being distributed by Herald Japan<\/a> <\/p>\n