Can I watch American TV shows in JP?

Are there any cable channels that show only American TV shows in Japan? I don't want to miss any of TV shows in Japan. How do people keep watching all the American TV shows in Japan?

You can get things such as the FOX network in Japan on cable and satellite.

However note that American TV shows are usually a few seasons behind then the current seasons in the USA.

For example it might be ER season 100 in the USA but in Japan they are only up to ER season 60.

I have a few channels of english (U.S) programs. AXN is on such channel heres thier schedule to give you an idea.

http://www.axn.co.jp/timetable/images/pdf/200801_eng.pdf

Heres info on FOX Japan.

http://www.foxjapan.com/tv/lineup/index.html

I also have Super Drama mostly older shows. Here

http://www.superdramatv.com/program/pdf/Super2008_01_eng.pdf

I also have Gaora just for NFL football.

http://www.gaora.co.jp/nfl/nfl/index_en.html

CNN, 3 Different "Star channels" (movies) a channel called Reality TV, Discovery, History Channel and National Geagraphic.

OpenHulu.com and watch the shows. Or try tvparadise.org. Both are free and legal because the shows are embedded from Hulu.com. You can watch the latest episodes of many things.

Also, ABC.com shows the last four episodes of their shows (lost, according to jim etc.)

CBS.com also have their latest episodes. Internet is everywhere in Japan

yes there are quite few cable providers. unfortunately some of the english/american programs are dubbed in japanese, and you have to rely on the subtitles. they also have american flicks but what i do is i download subtitles as well...this site may help you.. www.allsubs.org/

openhulu.com and all the affiliates - abc, cbs, nbc seem to block people in japan from seeing the shows on the internet - any other suggestions?

During my expat in Japan, the followings were my solutions of watching U.S. TV channels.

1. Nationphone.com
Pay for TV service. 12~250 channels. Standard to HD quality.

2. Joost TV:
It is a free online program, few choices in average quality.

1) The TV channel website itself. eg. ABC lets you watch Lost, Gray's and other broadcasts for free on their web site.

2) Online web site that has ties with multiple TV channels:
eg. hulu.com
http://familyinternet.about.com/od/computinglifestyle/tp/tvo...

3) Online streaming web sites with feeds from various TV stations:
eg. TVUPlayer, PPLive. Former is great for watching the US channels it has - actually just a few seconds delayed vs. real TV I have next to the PC. PPLive is good for Chinese shows....
http://www.cucirca.com/2007/02/21/13-places-to-watch-tv-onli...

4) Sony LocationFree box + PC software or PSP (attached or not to TV).
Pretty much this lets you go anywhere in the world, and as long as you've got internet access, you can control your cable box back home and watch whatever you've got at your USA home.

5) DVD recorder + friend. All they have to do is feed DVDs and schedules into the DVD recorder.

6) PC + TV tuner card + remote access. You can easily remote access to schedule recordings, watch TV live from remote, and all that much like the sony location free. Have to beg a friend to let you keep a PC in their house on all the time but it works nicely, just like the location free, and you can PVR to the HD hundreds of shows for future viewings.

I pointed out the problem with d's solution in this thread

http://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+24028

As someone mentioned above, I have been using NationPhone&TV's USATVAbroad service http://www.usatvabroad.com and really love it. I get a 200 channel US Cable subscription with HBO and Showtime. It is streamed live to me over the internet but I bought their optional set top box to watch it on my TV. I am getting excellent quality now but am thinking of upgrading to their HD service which should be really cool.

We use slingbox and love it! We never miss any of our favorite shows from the US.

www.slingmedia.com

We set our home computer up to our 40" TV and stream all our favorite American shows onto our television. It is also set up like a TiVo. You can pause, rewind, record your favorite show and watch them later!

We bought the Slingbox PRO-HD so that we can watch our shows in HD. The picture quality is pretty good, but probably not as good as you would get it in the states. The Slingbox costs between $200 - $300. You will give your Slingbox hardware to s/one in the states and you keep the software. Pick s/one that has the best cable channels because you will get exactly the same channels they get. That person will also need to have high speed internet connection (the faster, the better).

There is no monthly charge to use the Slingbox. It can be used anywhere in the world. When we first arrive in Japan, we watched TV from our laptop. Once we got all our furniture, we hooked our computer up to our TV and up popped all our favorite TV shows! You have to play with it a bit to get it to play just right. It skipped a bit at the beginning, but we managed to fix all the little kinks and are very pleased.

Don't bother paying for expensive cable in Japan. Just make sure you get a good, fast speed Internet connection. So, go buy a big flat screen TV and a Slingbox and you will be one happy couch potato!

The reason you can't just watch those free US cable websites here is because they sell their programming to foreign networks, and they're contracted to not give away online what they're selling. That's why Hulu, et al are blocked. There are work arounds as always. However, the legal way is to buy it.

Slingbox is a great solution, but you still need to host it on a US TV. If you have a TV in the US that you can connect it to, you're all set. Otherwise, you need to use a service like Nationphone & TV to host your slingbox for you. The cable costs are nearly the same either way. They also can provide you with a recorder so that you can watch the tv shows when you want rather than when they air live, which is not usually a convenient time for those of us in Japan.

Also with a cable service provider like Nationphone, you don't actually need the Slingbox if you want to just watch tv on your computer.