Things have never been easy for Xbox brand in Japan, it has struggled to compete with Sony’s hardware and is just slaughtered by Nintendo in the market.
Xbox One managed to sell only 38,000 systems at launch, compared to 308,000 Wii U units (in two days) by Nintendo, and 322,000 PS4s sold at launch by Sony.
Microsoft may never be as big as Nintendo or Sony in Japan, but it does need to start making an effort to capture a decent market share especially when it comes to its Xbox One.
So what can Microsoft do? Xbox One hasn’t sold enough to make Microsoft consider big Japan exclusive games which has influenced the company to try to push more units even at a lower price.
The price of Xbox One has be reduced by 5000 yen (around $41) temporarily in Japan. Plenty of local retailers are part in this promotional campaign including Amazon.
While this is a decent offer, I don’t think shedding 5000 yen will help matters. Japan is more into mobile and handhelds and those who aren’t, prefer buying PlayStation or Nintendo.
On the other hand, Xbox One is doing pretty well in U.S and other regions.
http://segmentnext.com/2015/05/20/xbox-one-gets-temporary-price-drop-in-japan/
