I know at least seven years ago there were quite a few Japanese game studios that were struggling to stay afloat and thus were providing very attractive costs of development (less than half the cost of an American studio).

I was working at a video game publisher at the time and we tried to take advantage of it, being an American company but with roots in Japan, but there was some cultural and communication issues that helped lead to products that didn't sell too great and negated all benefits of cheaper development in the first place.

I wouldn't be surprised if many of those companies are still struggling today.