The problem with defining every japanese RPG as J-RPG is that it strips the term completely from any descriptionary value. Nowadays, RPGs from Japan are much more varied and coinfluenced by other (western)genres as back in the day when the term was coined. Back then pretty much every J-RPG was a turnbased combat, top down view, party based, storyheavy wizardry-light -style rpg, so it made sense giving them their own name as an equivalent to stating those characteristics.
Nowadays the term, if applied as when it was coined, would not say anything about the game that could not be said by calling it simply an rpg.
So in my view it makes much more sense to stick to those original characteristics and thereby, while shifting the semantics, staying more true to its original meaning. This would also mean that indeed there can be games made outside of Japan that can be described as "J-RPG" as it now describes characteristics influcned by cultural origin rather than cultural origin itself.
Just like chinese food stays chinese food if its sold outside china and a hot dog doesnt become chinese food all of a sudden because its sold in China.
What are all these varied JRPG games coinfluenced by other (western) genres that we didn't have back in the day?
How is this any different from RPG in general?
-First of all there would be the case of Final Fantasy, the posterboy of classic J-RPGs, which dropped its roots almost completely and now features an action combat system.
-Then we have RTWP systems like in Final Fantasy 12 or the Xenoblade series
-We have Dark Souls of course which almost defines its own genre now
-We have Persona games with actual skill checks in dialogues and sim-like relationship systems.
-SMT in general with its taming demons theme and of course Pokemon are not exactly classic party based rpg systems as your party members function more like a set of spells that you swap consistently in order to adopt to new challenges
-We have top down actionbased hack and slash with loot systems
-We have throwbacks to classic blobbers such as Elminage and Etrian Odyssey
-There are strategy/rpg hybrids, nowadays leaning more and more towards the rpg side with grind missions and dating/breeding of new heroes
-We have RPGs with survival/crafting/building/socialization like in Harvest Moon etc
Listen, im not saying that every rpg from japan was the same back then. But there was a significant predominance of Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest style rpgs in the era the "brand" J-RPG rose to its fame.
And yes, "how would this be any different from RPG in general" is exactly my point. Genres exist in order to summarize a list of games that share certain characteristics, but the genre RPG has evolved/devolved/morphed so much and spread so far into other genres that the gameplay emphasis between two RPGs can be so far off from eachother that the very purpose of the terminology is dilluted almost to the part of inexistence. Give someone Wizardry 7 and let him play it. One day he comes back to you, telling you how much he loved the game and that you should recommend him the next title. Now you give him Mass Effect. Wouldnt you agree that the chances he will get what he wants are pretty thin?
Classifying a game as an RPG doesnt really say anything anymore about the game, or atleast not nearly enough. Now what sense would it make to broaden this classification also up for the term J-RPG?
