Nintendo is of course a corporate business, meaning that their main goal is to make money. Nintendo needs customers, though customers do not necessarily need Nintendo. This is one reason why Nintendo differs so much depending on the region. In my opinion, I feel Nintendo of Japan is much cooler and reasonable compared to its American counterpart. In this read, we'll examine some key aspects.
1) Nintendo of Japan was more 'real'. Let's face it. No matter who we are or where we live, we will ALL eventually be exposed to sex, drugs, religious acts of some kind and violence/cursing. Nintendo of Japan is more hardcore in this aspect in that these petty little things don't matter to them. I've personally translated Pokemon Green (on the hacking sub-forum category; I've got a new build to post, too). One thing is that they removed the drunk man scene, as well as mentions of "heaven" and even the mention of "Kanto". Some of the other text scenes that they cut were beyond me as there seemed to be nothing wrong, IMO, like the Mew diaries being changed. Zelda I omitted the word 'Bible' etc. The list for this goes on.
2) Japan is the true headquarters of Nintendo, so they get content first as well as fuller content. I think of giveaways like the Mew giveaway and Celebi event (we never even had a chance for the Celebi event...I had to hack it back into Crystal). I also think of the female trainer sprites in G/S that were changed to have pants rather than shorts. Seriously, wtf Nintendo of America? Two inches longer??? What the hell difference did that make? They weren't exposed to begin with. They got fuller better content like the FDS. The bottom of NOA NES' had extension ports but we never got an add-on... The FDS had an extra sound channel and games we never even got. Heck, the FDS library is HUGE (as well as Famicom). Games like SMB2J, Doki Doki Panic in its full, Deep Dungeon etc. We really got screwed. Don't even get me started on the Pokemon Cards. In the TCG GBC game we got a promo Meowth card packaged but Japan got the legendary Dragonite holo card... the rarest freakin' card in the game as a REAL card??? Seriously? Plus their expansions were so much fuller, Gym Challenge had more cards (they omitted a naked Misty that wasn't even visible), Fossil had Mew, Neo 2 and 3 had holos we never got, promos we never even got, unreleased cards...full sets like the vending series. Anime of Pokemon was censored/omittted entirely. Nintendo could have done better when coming to the States.
3) Nintendo of Japan is really more sincere. NOA has communication issues. Think about it. All the main games are created there with people like Shigeru Miyamoto. Where the originality stays fresh. When they come to the States, we get watered down versions by corporate and poorly translated/mistranslated games. The problem with Nintendo of America: They try too hard. Plain and simple. It's all about the money and its always been that way because this is business. But there's a point when people get too greedy and fear lurks around corner with people afraid to release things because of fear of bad sales. So some duche idiots with no sense of creativity come and change it the way THEY feel it should be. Did you also know that when Pokemon first came here they wanted to change the monsters COMPLETELY because they looked to 'scary' but Nintendo of Japan said no? Censoring crap unnecessarily and cutting content. I mean, do they realize that youths today are already exposed to garbage daily in real life and good shows like Family Guy etc. No wonder Sony and Xbox are so successful; they keep it REAL! I understand wanting 'family' content but to what extent? It wasn't that bad to begin with... I think had they been more true to their products they would have been a lot more successful here in the States.
Bottom line: Nintendo of Japan is better. Nintendo of America made bad choices and are a little too greedy for money; NOA has good businessmen but they lack creativity (and integrity).
EDIT: Example of lack of integrity: Pokemon cards in Japan are cheaper but use a higher quality gloss paper; a box comes with 60 packs whereas our box comes with 36. They 'expand' our sets to include non-holo versions of cards to milk us out of more money because we are supposedly richer than the Japanese. In Japan, EVERY SINGLE BOOSTER PACK came with a holo. (Some like Gym Heroes came with BOTH a holo and a rare.)
1) Nintendo of Japan was more 'real'. Let's face it. No matter who we are or where we live, we will ALL eventually be exposed to sex, drugs, religious acts of some kind and violence/cursing. Nintendo of Japan is more hardcore in this aspect in that these petty little things don't matter to them. I've personally translated Pokemon Green (on the hacking sub-forum category; I've got a new build to post, too). One thing is that they removed the drunk man scene, as well as mentions of "heaven" and even the mention of "Kanto". Some of the other text scenes that they cut were beyond me as there seemed to be nothing wrong, IMO, like the Mew diaries being changed. Zelda I omitted the word 'Bible' etc. The list for this goes on.
2) Japan is the true headquarters of Nintendo, so they get content first as well as fuller content. I think of giveaways like the Mew giveaway and Celebi event (we never even had a chance for the Celebi event...I had to hack it back into Crystal). I also think of the female trainer sprites in G/S that were changed to have pants rather than shorts. Seriously, wtf Nintendo of America? Two inches longer??? What the hell difference did that make? They weren't exposed to begin with. They got fuller better content like the FDS. The bottom of NOA NES' had extension ports but we never got an add-on... The FDS had an extra sound channel and games we never even got. Heck, the FDS library is HUGE (as well as Famicom). Games like SMB2J, Doki Doki Panic in its full, Deep Dungeon etc. We really got screwed. Don't even get me started on the Pokemon Cards. In the TCG GBC game we got a promo Meowth card packaged but Japan got the legendary Dragonite holo card... the rarest freakin' card in the game as a REAL card??? Seriously? Plus their expansions were so much fuller, Gym Challenge had more cards (they omitted a naked Misty that wasn't even visible), Fossil had Mew, Neo 2 and 3 had holos we never got, promos we never even got, unreleased cards...full sets like the vending series. Anime of Pokemon was censored/omittted entirely. Nintendo could have done better when coming to the States.
3) Nintendo of Japan is really more sincere. NOA has communication issues. Think about it. All the main games are created there with people like Shigeru Miyamoto. Where the originality stays fresh. When they come to the States, we get watered down versions by corporate and poorly translated/mistranslated games. The problem with Nintendo of America: They try too hard. Plain and simple. It's all about the money and its always been that way because this is business. But there's a point when people get too greedy and fear lurks around corner with people afraid to release things because of fear of bad sales. So some duche idiots with no sense of creativity come and change it the way THEY feel it should be. Did you also know that when Pokemon first came here they wanted to change the monsters COMPLETELY because they looked to 'scary' but Nintendo of Japan said no? Censoring crap unnecessarily and cutting content. I mean, do they realize that youths today are already exposed to garbage daily in real life and good shows like Family Guy etc. No wonder Sony and Xbox are so successful; they keep it REAL! I understand wanting 'family' content but to what extent? It wasn't that bad to begin with... I think had they been more true to their products they would have been a lot more successful here in the States.
Bottom line: Nintendo of Japan is better. Nintendo of America made bad choices and are a little too greedy for money; NOA has good businessmen but they lack creativity (and integrity).
EDIT: Example of lack of integrity: Pokemon cards in Japan are cheaper but use a higher quality gloss paper; a box comes with 60 packs whereas our box comes with 36. They 'expand' our sets to include non-holo versions of cards to milk us out of more money because we are supposedly richer than the Japanese. In Japan, EVERY SINGLE BOOSTER PACK came with a holo. (Some like Gym Heroes came with BOTH a holo and a rare.)