Surprised they haven't done this earlier. 360 in Japan has been dead. Expensive jRPGs get it one or two weeks of superior sales at most which in the big picture is no help at all vs Wii and barely enough vs the PS3. Something drastic was called for unless MS wanted to admit defeat in Japan again.
If the price cut doesn't make much difference then with such low sales its hardly costing MS much to sell 20,000 or so 360s with a higher cost than those sold in US/Others. If it does work then its worth the additional install base and might even kick-start the console to better things in the region...
The only risk I see is that if the sales don't get a decent, sustained boost at this price the MS may have to face the fact that Japan remains essentially closed to them expensive exclusives or not.
Oh, and I predict that someone is going to post using the term 'desperate move' at some point in this thread (unless I've scared them off but they would have otherwise!)
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...
