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Well I can think of a reason for that in the US market. Japan and North America are both Region A for Blu-ray. Meaning "cheap" US copies on BD can be imported back to Japan for less than the locally made BD version costs...even with shipping charges.
For DVDs, the US is Region 1 and Japan Region 2. Thus while someone is Japan could ship the DVD back home, they would need a Region 1 player and thus it would be less common to "lose a sale" due to DVDs from America.
On the UK market, however, Western Europe is DVD Region 2 as well as Japan (though there seems to be some weird sub-region stuff going on in Europe) but Europe is Region B for Blu-ray. In theory, one could import a European Region 2 DVD to Japan, but I don't know what they pricing is like on the Euro or the Pound verse the Yen.
In recent times, some Japanese publishers have started to put English subtitles on their Blu-ray releases right from the beginning. Thus they don't need an international parter, just someplace willing to sell at their prices. They have not been putting these subtitles on the DVD versions (guess there is a larger market for Region A BD than Region 2 DVDs in the English speaking world).
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