WiiU's second week in Japan was a healthy 130k (compared to PS3's 44K)

However WiiU barely outsold it's older sibling in NA and was vastly outsold by the Wii in PAL regions.

I recall in 2006/2007 it was not uncommon for PS3 to be outsold by PS2, but PS2 was a beast of a seller, had a fantastic library that was still going and was almost $500 less.  PS3's launch line-up also left something to be desired.

While Wii was also a beast of a seller, it was no PS2.  It's been in sales freefall since 2011 and has almost no new games being released.  And while WiiU is more expensive, it's not the huge difference that existed between PS2 and PS3.  WiiU also has perhaps the strongest launch line-up ever.

Is this an anomoly caused by casual holiday spenders? Is Nintendo going to need to make a 3DS type price cut to boost sales? Or is WiiU simply too little, too late?

I think the bolded is the core of the matter, I've been saying all along that the Wii U feels like a catch-up project, doubly so when it was forced unto the market early when the Wii started faltering. I'm fairly certain that this is how other consumers might see it as well, there is no great purchasing incentive, they see a HD console with a lot less games that costs quite a bit more and has less options for media playback. The gamepad is not the Wii-mote and possibly appears as a faint copy of an iPad, even though it was never meant to be one (I feel that the gamepad is more akin to the 3DS and DS than an iPad).

Another problem might be the consumers who didn't see it at all, the whole thing just appeared in stores one day, no bravado, no drums, no advertising to speak of, right before christmas. I would describe this as a very poor launch effort by Nintendo, and teamed with the problems with servers, slow OS, small storage, load times, slew up mandatory updates, poor solutions to online ID (tied to hardware) and a few other things, it has mostly gotten bad press all over, most of which is pretty much well deserved.

The Wii U is rushed, there can be no doubt, it shows little future promise in terms of 3rd party major support, as has become Nintendo's achilles heel, tehc savvy people will be put off by the small jump in power it offers, unfleshed online and the somewhat feeble gamepad as well as the other aforementioned problems while casual customers might not even notice it and even if they do will likely have something more like a tablet or smartphone on their wishlists.

I think what I'm trying to say is; the Wii U did exactly what I said it would, it has falled between two chairs and might very well end up having a fairly limited appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers. With that in mind, I maintain that it will sell significantly less than the Wii lifetime and have a shorter life than it's parent.

Why does that all only affect europe and not the US and Japan?

Yes I've been very vocal on that point myself and that's why I've been so highly critical of the WiiU.   It's the exact wrong approach to the current market challenges.   Nintendo needs to differenciate themselves from other casual offerings, and WiiU does the opposite - poorly.  Which is beyond stupid because the Wii did that brilliantly.

However, I'm not clear on regional factors here.   Is this effecting PAL sales more than NA?  Why isn't this as big a factor in Japan?  Or perhaps it is but Mario/MH/DQ are a compelling argument to shell out for a WiiU.

My guess is PAL sales are due to marketing (or lack thereof) moreso than this issue, although long term I fear the future of WiiU is bleak.

then maybe you were one of the "other 2" i mentioned.  i can't hardly remember because the whole "no one games on an ipad" crowd was so overwhelming at the time.  it has been "fun" (with a large side of "depressing") to see peoples opinions slowly change with the faulters of the 3DS, vita, and now wii U. 

i have a miniscule amount of more hope for the next MSony consoles.  i'm not sure if nintendo just didn't view apple as a threat (or maybe was too far down the path to turn around) but a "tablet" controller is the exact opposite thing they could have done to distinguish themselves in this marketplace.  i really hope kinect 2.0 is impressive or the rumored "omniviewer" cause if neither are...  well fuck me.