Japanese release dates - how to interpret?

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mjb -- as you said, まで or made is "until" in Japanese. The Kanji 再 can have a few different meanings, but I did a search on Japanese pages and got a partial answer for you here (the last box on the page):

In this case, 再 is short for 再発売 or "resale." So, as uzumaki said, resellers have to sell the CD at the price marked on the CD until that まで date. After that date, it's up to the reseller to set what price they want.

So, in your example above the release date is December 1, 1999. I'm not sure about the (X) and (Y), but on one example I have the (X) date was about a month earlier than the (Y) date, and I verified independently that the (Y) date was the correct release date.

A lot on my Japanese CDs have those letters on them; by verifying release dates on the Web independently, I've seen a pattern and come to the conclusion that the letters are codes for years. It seems that some labels used them in the '80s and up through 1990 -- I haven't seen any later than that.

I believe the code is:

N -- 1984
H -- 1986
O -- 1987
R -- 1988
E -- 1989
C -- 1990

I haven't seen any for 1985, so I don't know what letter that is yet.

So your three examples above would be:

25 February 1987
25 August 1988
5 September 1986

As for the "X," it's usually, as in your example above, one year after the release date, so maybe it indicates the end of the mandatory pricing period we talked about above. Just a guess...

1985 is "I".

lazlo_nibble -- thanks for adding that piece to the puzzle! So, from '84 to '90, we get:

N I H O R E C

Maybe they're trying to spell out "Nihon Record..." ("Nihon" being "Japan" in Japanese, and you can't repeat the "N," right?) Could it be "Nihon Record Industry Association" or something like that? Just a guess...

Vixion -- thanks, I believe everyone understands the date order. The point is that where there should be 2 or 4 digits for the year, there's only a capital letter sometimes. For example, I have 7 CDs each with the "E" and "C" on them; by doing searches on Google with the catalog #s, I found all the "E" CDs just happened to be released in 1989, whereas all the "C" CDs just happened to be 1990. It can't be a coincidence, right?

lazlo_nibble -- can you add to this discussion? Have you heard of this code before?

jasmithers -- I'm not sure there's even a controversy at the moment. Everything you listed is consistent with my collection.

Vixion -- When you said The letter in front doesn't add information I assume you mean the X~ in X~88.02.24, correct?

The plot thickens!

O.K. -- I don't know what the circle-X and circle-Y mean, but regarding your example above as such:

Ｘ～８８・２・２４　Ｏ・２・２５

you may notice that the date after the "X~" is a year after the release date (Ｏ・２・２５ = 87.2.25 by our code above, right?), minus one day. I have a few examples like that as well, and the "X~" date is always one year after the release date. In Japanese, as in English, the "~" is used to indicate "until," and in Japanese made includes the date mentioned before it, thus Ｘ～８８・２・２４ means "from the release date of 87.02.25, up to and including 88.02.24," or exactly one year.

I checked on the Japan Recording Industry Association Web site here and guess what is in effect for a year?!?

You may not be aware, but in Japan there are CD rental shops -- very cool! Well, the RIA site says that there is a "right" (of the makers, I assume) to forbid the rental of CDs (and other recorded media) for one year after the release date. Here's an interesting thing: for Japanese pressings, the wording says the companies have the right to allow it or not within the first year. For imported CDs, though, it is simply forbidden for the first year.

I believe that the Ｘ～８８・２・２４　Ｏ・２・２５ is just an example of this, i.e. the companies are asserting their right to forbid rentals for the whole first year after release. Of course, all Japanese CDs I checked have the standard boilerplate language "It is forbidden to rent out this CD without the consent of the rights holder."

Lastly, I found I have a few Japanese CDs on which the end ("limit") of the "rental-lockout" period is specified in writing. For those few examples, the limit always comes at the end of the month two months after the release date, e.g. a release date of 88.4.20 could not be rented up to 88.6.30. Also, these CDs have special language under the limit: "However, even after the above-stated limit has passed, it is forbidden to rent out this CD without the consent of the rights holder."

Sorry about the long-winded post. I'll keep looking for the circle-X and circle-Y thing.

Sorry -- I meant to say:

Ｘ～８８・２・２４　Ｏ・２・２５ means "forbidden from the release date of 87.02.25, up to and including the date 88.02.24"

In other words, the Ｘ～ does seem to have a meaning after all.

I would -- nearly every time I've seen that case, I've been able to find listings on the Web that confirm that single date as the release date. If only it were that simple every time!

I think it's more likely that the date pairs reflect the fixed-price interval under the Saihan Seido system as mentioned earlier. I've noticed these dates getting closer together over the years.