Apples and oranges though.  Japan is by far the failed Vita's strongest territory.  And it's had 28 months extra on the market.  Including 3 extra holiday periods.  

I still think it tells you something about the general state of home consoles in Japan.

PS2 is the best selling video game system ever worldwide.
In Japan it's only a couple millions above the PSP and 3DS (and 10 mill below DS and GB).
PS2 is the only home console in the top 5 best selling systems in Japan (the rest are handhelds).
In Japan it sold 23.18 mill and PS4 will probably end up around 1/3 of those sales.

Japan loves their handheld gaming.

It will end up closer to half then a third.  People need to stop bringing up the ps2. That market is gone.  It's now a market where 10m is what you can sell.  Wii and ps3 beat it,  ps4 will come close and might beat it too. I'll just leave this here.  Ps4 is tracking very well.  

Credit: hiska-kun on gaf. 

People seem to forget that Japan is Nintendo's stronghold. The Wii U didn't perform as poorly there as it did in the rest of the world. So with that in mind combined with Japan probably being the PS4's weakest market right now you have the main reasons as to why it took longer to pass the Wii U. But in the end the PS4 will sell at least twice what the Wii U did. It still has many years of good sales on the horizon and many impactful games to come. One thing that could slow down the PS4 is the NX but we'll have to wait and see what the NX even is.

Lol at those who said it wouldn't happen

Id be interested to see what effect VR has on the Japanese market, if any.

Bold: Oh, if we consider PS3 sales in Japan to be a success and if we consider 10 mill to be the maximum sales for a home console in Japan nowadays then your point is valid. But that doesn't negate the fact that the popularity of home consoles has declined in Japan.

Personally, I predict that PS4 will end up with 7-8 mill lifetime sales in Japan and that is far from how other home consoles have performed there. Though as I said to Miyamotoo that may turn out to be respectable sales in the end due to Japan preferring handheld gaming even more today than they used to.

I think just short of 4m by the end of the year,  5.5m for 2017, 7m for 2018, 8.5m 2019 and 2021/22/23 it will be between 9-11m.

Which puts it in the same bracket as ps3. By today's market that's basically as good as you'll get unless Nintendo, Sony and all third parties work on the same console.  

Bold: I agree. Hence the "Though I think that is and will be a general thing for every home console (that isn't also a handheld) in Japan from now on."

I think we're in the same boat. PS4 won't end anywhere near the top 4 selling home consoles in Japan due to handheld gaming being more popular than ever. But its lifetime sales may still end up being respectable when we consider this general Japanese decline of home console gaming.

Instead of "respectable" you (and naruball) used the word "impressive" and that's fine by me

Yeah we're definitely in the same boat. It's just I'm on the premium level and you're on the regular fare :P haha only messing Yeah I agree with what you say.