Posted 06 December 2004 - 4:02 AM
The reason the Japanese get bonus tracks is purely for financial reasons. Japanese versions of CDs are often far more expensive than it is for them to buy an imported version from Europe or the USA, so record companies provide incentive for the Japanese to buy Japanese releases by adding bonus tracks.
While I'm sure Tom and Ed do enjoy playing in Japan (they certainly seem to in the Fuji Fest footage on the DVD), that has little or nothing to do with bonus tracks.
Thankfully, the internet has made tracking down those bonus tracks easier and, occasionally, Japanese releases make it over here, such as when I picked up my Primal Scream Live in Japan at A & B Sound. Now if only they'd receive the Primal Scream Japanese best-of that I ordered months ago.....
Anyways, the summary is: blame Zimbabwe.