According to Bloomberg, in the year ending March, Apple shipped 1.69 million iPhones to Japan. By way of comparison, the PSP sold 2.41 million units in the same period and the DS 3.9 million.

So much for the idea that the Japanese won't import electronics.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-23/apple-iphone-captures-72-of-japan-smartphone-market-update3-.html

April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.’s iPhone shipments to Japan more than doubled in the past year, capturing 72 percent of the country’s smartphone market, a research firm said.

Shipments of the iPhone, which began selling in Japan in July 2008, climbed to 1.69 million units in the year ended March 31, Tokyo-based MM Research Institute Ltd. said in a report yesterday. That raised the total to 2.3 million, Hideaki Yokota, an analyst at the research firm, said by telephone today.

The iPhone helped smartphone sales more than double last fiscal year in Japan as shipments of regular mobile phones shrank, according to the report. Smartphone shipments will probably exceed 3 million units in the 12 months started April 1, even as the overall market is forecast to contract for a third year, it said.

“Last year was just the beginning of the smartphone competition, which is why Apple did so well,” said Calvin Huang, who rates iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. “buy” at Daiwa Securities Group Inc. in Taipei. “This year will be much more competitive.”

Taiwan’s HTC Corp. was the second-largest seller of smartphones in Japan with 11 percent of the market, followed by Toshiba Corp.’s 6.8 percent, it said.

Android Phones

The MM estimates indicate Japan accounted for about 5.6 percent of iPhones sold worldwide last fiscal year. While the Cupertino, California-based electronics maker doesn’t break down the number iPhones sold by country, Japan’s portion of total revenue climbed to 6.6 percent in the latest quarter, the highest since 2006, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Softbank Corp., the exclusive iPhone carrier in Japan, and bigger rivals NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp. are expanding their smartphone lineups with handsets running Google Inc.’s Android software to bolster revenue from data services. DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile-phone operator, began selling its second Android model earlier this month and KDDI, the country’s second-biggest, will introduce a Sharp Corp.-made phone in June.     Android, a newcomer to the smartphone operating-system market, will see its global handset base jump to 68 million units by 2013, from 690,000 in 2008, researcher IDC Corp. said in January. Google software will outpace Apple’s and Microsoft Corp.’s operating systems to be second only to Symbian, used by Nokia Oyj.     Softbank rose 0.4 percent to close at 2,104 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, compared with a 0.3 percent decline by the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average. DoCoMo dropped 1.5 percent, while KDDI retreated 0.1 percent.

There goes the whole it sales bad there casue its american.

Yeah this whole "Japanese are economic nationalists" mantra is bullshit. The Japanese buy what they want like mostly everybody else. Apple did a great job of making the Japanese want an iPhone and an iPod. The Xbox? Microsoft hasn't given the Japanese enough reasons to choose an Xbox over a Playstation or a Wii. Most of the popular franchises in Japan are on the Wii and Playstation. Those Japanese who own a Xbox 360 probably also own a PS3 (and a Wii too probably). But most gamers aren't willing to spend that much on their hobby. So unless Microsoft gives the Japanese a reason to choose the Xbox brand over the Playstation, the Xbox will remain in the domain of the niche hardcore Japanese gamer. Apple was able to convince the Japanese that an iPhone is better than a Sony Ericsson and an iPod is better than a Walkman (though Sony's portable media players are making a comeback over there these days apparently).

Its all about making devices appealing to Japanese users - sleek, stylish, clean.

Japanese companies have a homefield advantage for those things, which is why they flourish.

At any rate, I wonder what the chances are that these iPhone owners realize they play games too, and decide to forgo the 3DS.

Probably the same chances that Apple has of getting Dragon Quest and Monster Hunter in the App store.

OT: You seem to be right about the appeal. The 360 just has Hummer written all over its design.

They've already gotten Final Fantasy remakes.

Japan was actually the first territory to openly embrace games for mobile phones.  Square Enix have been actively developing games for mobile phones since 2003.

Just because Apple sells well doesn't mean all of a sudden the Japanese consumer doesn't have any form of national preference.

good for apple I guess

on another note NOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooo

square enix already developed an awesome game for iphone called chaos rings

xbox 360 marketing campaign, was jump in. And was terrible and didn't make sense.

Sony Makes Mp3 players, and phones just like apple. soo... its just more likely a japanese company is going to develop things for a japanese target audience more so than an american company would.

eh, android phones have plenty of time to take Japan. Its still the youngest phone OS. Considering its only been out for what.... 7 months?