The Batman stories published in Japan in the 60s were for the most part essentially revamped versions of the American stories. Chipp Kidd published some of these stories in the BAT-MANGA book in their complete form. Most of the pages were photographed from the original pages so they have that vintage look which Kidd seems to love almost to distraction--I'm sure it would've been possible to reconstruct the art so it looked brand new, but Chipp likes things that look old and grungy.
That was the licensed version of Batman from NPP--just with a bit of a manga look owing to the artists who did the pages (but some covers in the BAT-MANGA book really evoke the look of Infantino and Anderson's Batman).
I wonder if Golden Batman was a licensed version of the character or simply a rip-off.
This brings back memories of going to the movies in 1966 in hopes of seeing the "Batman" movie--hopes that were dashed when my sister convinced my parents to take us into the screening of "Mary Poppins" (which I enjoyed just the same). But while we debated our movie choice outside the theatre, I was standing wearing my Batman T-shirt and I saw a boy a few yards in front of me, and he must've been either Japanese or Chinese, wearing his own Batman T-shirt but his looked completely different from mine. I decided at that moment that this was owing to some profound cultural difference between our two worlds.
