Question is, how much support did the original DS get from 3rd parties? I'm not sure at all, but from what I've heard, it was mostly Nintendo games that sold and and 3rd party support was rather poor. If this is the case, why would Japanese developers support the 3DS? It's probably not gonna sell as well as DS. Is your "3DS getting more support from J-games"-argument based on the fact that Vita isn't no PSP?

I believe that 3rd party support will be strong for all next gen consoles; it won't be like this gen when Wii only got shit ports.

And having a strong handheld console doesn't automatically mean better support for your home console. Case in point: the Game Boy series. This line up of HW dominated the handheld market from 1989 to 2004, coinciding with the N64 and GameCube; arguably Nintendos worst supported systems, and definitely worst selling home consoles. Going by your logic as formulated in the OP, these would have been great days of 3rd party support for Nintendo. And yet, they are remembered as the Dark Ages of Nintendo...

We have yet to get any confirmation that this will be the case, but so far things are looking likely that it will be.  I don't think in Japan the WiiU has to surpass the sales of 3DS to be successful, just sell enough alongside it.  Unlike Wii, I see this being more of a success in Japan because of the tablet feature and the ability to play offscreen.

I agree with this, key two to the 3rd party solution. Dress them up as you would yourself.

I'm applying this to a very different context than the N64 and the cube, which suffered from bleeding injuries from the get-go.

I'm taking a real, best-case scenario that Nintendo is currently in: 3DS destroying its competition from the get-go in japan (was not the case year 1 of last gen).

Nintendo is at the top of the industry, having just defeated the reigning champion (is now in the playstation 2's shoes upon the PS1 victory), with no sour feelings in j-devs (as was the case ushering into the N64).

Just very, very, completetly different cases. Your argument applies because of other much more damaging factors, and not the factor at hand (general support for the manufacturer). Also, the 3DS support from 3rd parties is very different from the DS'. The DS had IPs not usually found on consoles, like layton and twewy. The 3DS has some good capabilities, and so companies are putting their big IPs and serious offerings on it. That's very different.

The gameboy was never considered a full gaming diet like now the portables are in japan. It's a very different time.

The DS started out with poor 3rd party support, but it picked up over the years, particularly once Final Fantasy 3 was remade and released in 2006. Square Enix made a bunch of games, including Dragon Quest 9 and remakes of 4-6, Sega made their various Sonic games, Capcom made Mega Man and Ace Attorney games, Level 5 made the Professor Layton series, you've got casual games like the Cooking Mama franchise, and even Western developers made games like Grand Theft Auto, Lego games, Imagine, Scribblenauts, Sims and MySims, and several Guitar Heroes. It was about on par with the PSP over its lifetime, and probably better if you focus on the years from 2007 to 2010.

Yeah I´m expecting the Wii U to have a very good Japanese 3rd party support, and though Western support is definitely better this time, I don´t expect it to match the kind of love (from Western devs) the other systems (especially the next Xbox) will be getting.

Of course, we´ll have to wait and see, but for example, I definitely don´t expect to see Elder Scrolls and Fallout on a Nintendo system.

Yeah, I guess you're right. I hope it all pans out the way you're describing here; but it is very much a "best case scenario"...

Seems like I was wrong then =) Hopefully this 3rd party J-support spills over to the WIiU as well