I'm not Japanese, and you'll probably find a slight Xbox bias in me, but I must say that Microsoft has really, reeeally been trying hard in Japan, and it's good to see some of the fruits of their labour.
Obviously they won't be dominant there this gen (or likely ever), and there's very little chance they'll even beat the PS3 there, but it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Microsoft's intense focus on Japanese-oriented games and gamers had actually had some effect. I mean, even if they started losing to PS3 there by 1k a week, it would be a huge win for them, and it looks like the Japanese gaming audience is giving them a hand with that.