I don't need the media to tell me what to think or validate my opinion. 

The problem is most of these launch titles are not very appealing to the Japanese.

I went to three different stores today (Sunday, 2/23 between 3 and 5pm) and all three had PS4 in stock.

Yamada - Large-ish electronics store with a decent-sized videogame department. They have a tag system like Toys R Us and there were 4-5 tags for each model left.

Local game store - They had 12 PS4 cases on the shelf (take to counter to receive machine).

Joshin KidsLand - Big videogame store inside a BestBuy-type store. This is where the picture above was take at 3:30pm on 2/23. They had at least 30 consoles in stock based on the game cases pictured and the stacks of machines behind the counter.

I am going to Osaka's videogame district tomorrow where there are at least a dozen stores that sell PS4, including a Joshin Playstation concept store and I will post an update with pictures.

Was hoping it would do well but it flopped hard. That's too bad for people who enjoy Japanese style gaming on consoles.

http://i.imgur.com/VIhtuQn.jpg

From launch day when I picked up a third console at 4pm, i was informed that the majority of the stores stock had sold within an hour of opening.
Wasn't exactly a major store either.

I'll wait for official numbers than judge off of posts, because ive seen an awful lot of people posting pictures of display boxes as "proof" of unbought stock, and an awful lot of people thinking that the games on display are actual retail products and not just "take to till" items, which, true to form in japan, are returned to the stand within minutes.

And again, a large portion of the people i saw in these stores that were not buying the console, were buying games and/or accessories, people who had clearly preordered, japan has become a very big consumer of e-commerce, so initial numbers could still be high, and theres plenty of stock across the country to prevent major dips of demand outstripping supply as it did in the west.

But now I can't use your post :(

Also yeah pictures of fake stock are always amusing. In America it was pretty easy since only real boxes have handles. Is that the same over there?

Nothing against vfguy, but I really hope he was confused lol. Sunday night stock should be getting hard to find if Sony didn't screw up.

Being in stock is a bad thing when its on a competing console/platform/brand
Clearly its much better to overstock...

Yes, in Japan, they never have the actual consoles on the floor. They do have lots of display boxes on the floor, but that is not what my picture above is of. It is "Take-to-the-till" boxes that do go back out onto the floor. However, the actual stock in a store would be greater than the number of "Take-to-the-till" boxes on the floor. The Joshin store above also had a massive mountain of actual PS4 boxes (yes, with the handle) behind the counter.

Naturally, anecdotal evidence is not the whole picture, but if I can go in to a total of five different stores late on launch day and the day after launch and all of them have stock, that doesn't look great. Of course, without knowing the allocation, this can mean any number of things.

That is the thing, the store I went to in Machida, I called ahead the day before and they said they had just received additional stock, from the convosation i had with staff in line I was given the impression that they had sold over 500 consoles in that one store, on that one day, as shown in my picture they even gutted the xbox section to make a specific line for PS4-item buyers.

Doesnt mean it will happen across the country of course, i went in to a brick and mortar game store today in Yamato and they had lots of stock, but i think personally, we arent getting a clear picture just by going off of availability in stores, after all a lot of people are still avoiding major travel because of the snow, certainly in the north in hokkaido and gunma main is still somewhat delayed and many smaller cities are still dealing with the aftermath of the snowfall last week.

I suspect online orders were so high that Sony overcompensated with stock allocation, and what weve ended up with is lots left on shelves because of over-stocking, certainly i expected brick and mortar stores to have stock days after release even if stock was limited, thats how its always been, but if the larger stores are all receiving major stock levels like the one in machida then it stands to reason that there would be lots left.

Until we hear some official numbers though its purely guesswork on both sides of the fence.

I do however suspect the numbers to be higher than most people are expecting.

So what are you gonna do with your 3 consoles? You know you're still missing anopther one to be cool.