From what I seem to grasp of the situation, the Japanese seem to be a nationalistic country with the buying power that we have. Because of their social attitude vs our individualist attitude, It seems you cannot break them unless you show them something they don't already have. That I believe is the answer. IE: Microsoft says, "buy the Xbox 360". Japan says, "Why should we when we have better quality companies making games for us?". Also you have to understand that they believe in helping their own economy. If they do not help their companies, as you are seeing now, they will indeed fall. Japanese development has not been catering to their own very well as they have in the past. Their developers seem weaker and more sluggish. Inafune of Capcom has said that "Japan is finished". Miyamoto of Nintendo is eyeing and praising western development talent for their creativity over the Japanese. When you look at this in some sense, you can tell the Japanese see talent in the west, but for some reason will not give up on themselves. Inafune certainly has no qualms about working with the west for sure though. He seems to be one of those I'll consider a rarity.
If the west wants to win over Japan, they need to show them something they've never seen, while appealing to them at the same time. I mean come on...can the only thing they want from us be movies, Mcdonalds and Starbucks? Our novelty to them, just isn't being realized, because it doesn't exist. This is also another reason why Japanese titles will get better treatment on Japanese systems from now on. The Japanese have spoken.
Westerners buy essentially anything compared to the Japanese as well. They like to be self sufficient as a nation where-as we like to do anything that capitalizes on the situation for self, no matter where it comes from.
