Only because PS3 didn't sell anywhere good in first year bacuse high price, PS3 start selling good only after price cut. Console gaming in Japan is today much less popular than in PS3 era that is clear fact and even PS4 sales number proves that, just compare PS4 sales in Japan with rest of world, PS4 is selling bad in Japan compared to WW numbers, in Japan only around 2.5m while WW around 40m.

Are you serious about this ?, i heard the same on a bait article other day, the Home Console market on Japan is worth more than 3 Billions of US$ (only the console market),  Germany (Germany, is also the 4th-5th biggest video game market of the World, is the closest to Japan) and with PC, Mobile, and Console, Germany is woth 3.5 Billions on the Video Game Market, so Japan's console Market still nearly bigger than Germany's entire video game Market.

Lets compare the Home console Market of Japan, Germany, and France, the biggest countries for Gaming, i will not count UK, because UK are 3 or more Countries together, i don't remember how many it is.

France 2.3 Millions of PS4, 750 thousands of Xbox One, and 800 thousands of Wii U, this is a total of 3.85 Millions of Home consoles sold.

Germany, is 2.8 Millions of PS4, 600 Thousands Xbox One, and 700 Thousands of Wii U, a total of 4.1 Millions of home consoles sold, Germany is the 3th country for Home console Market.

Japan 2.5 Millions of PS4, 3.1 Millions of Wii U, and 60 thousands of Xbox One, total is 5.6 Millions of Home Consoles sold, Japan is still the second biggest Home console m in the World, much bigger than Germany, the third placed country.

The only problem is that different than France, and Germany, the PS4, have a competition on Japan, or atleast had, the Wii U, on the first years of the ps4, was selling on par with Playstation 4, but on 2015, Playstation 4, has taken the lead, and now is selling  much better than Wii U.

The PS4, launched on February 2014 on Japan, and on November 2013 on Europe, so Europe had the 2013's Holidays to purchase it, and had 3 Months of advantage over Japan.

After USA, the country that most sold PS4, is Germany, sold 2.8 Millions, but also had a 3 Months advantage, Playstation 4 is selling at a 20 Thousands basis per week, so 12 Weeks for the Playstation 4, at 2.5 Millions, means that Playstation 4, would have sold 2.7 Millions or more in Japan, if launched in the same month as Europe.

So in a country that people say that  home console is a "Dead Market" being the third country that sold the most Playstation 4, is something good, Japan, is the Second biggest Home console market, even if it falls 1/3 of it, it would still be the second biggest home console country, Japan, is having a shift of interest, now Western games are selling good ammount of Units, The Division's Week of launch on Japan, sold half of what Far Cry 4, sold in Germany with all their versions, PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, on the opening week, the Market will grow.

But with Playstation 4's lack of Japanese games on the beggining of  the generation, and the Wii U, only releasing 1 game each 2 months, this really don't help, but the Japanese games like Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest, will bost Playstation 4's Sales.

Very serious and thats is well knows fact, Japan massively moved to mobile platforms and handhelds, leaving home consoles. Have on mind that Japan is home land for gaming consoles, gaming was always huge there and this gen in Japan home gaming is in decline and much smaller than before. Fact that you comparing Japan sales with Germany or France sales tell us much, never before you couldnt compare them beacuse Japan sales were always much stronger.

If you want to compare sale numbers, compare PS3 numbers in Germany or France with PS3 sales numbers in Japan, and than compare PS4 Germany or France numbers with PS4 sales numbers in Japan.

If we look VGC numbers: PS3 in Germany and France sold 4.7m and 5.4m, while PS3 in Japan sold 10.5m. PS4 in Germany and France sold 2.8m and 2.3m, while PS4 in Japan sold 2.5m. So in Japan sales of PS4 are basically on level of Germany or France sales, while sales of PS3 in Japan were around 2x higher than Germany or France sales. So you can cleraly see huge decline in popularity of home consoles in Japan.

I voted 9-10m.

You are Comparing Life-time sales with my comparison about  2 years sales, the Playstation 4, still had the Wii U on japan, the console would not be dying if Nintendo, had made a Re-stock, and running for Third Party Support, overseas we had the Xbox 360, having a lot of sose artucess, and was a competition for Playstation, and still had the Wii, on Japan you only had PS3, and Wii, but you also had 1.2 Millions of Xbox 360.

Japan's Last gen sales numbers was 24-25 Millions total of Home Consoles sold, Nintendo NX, will still be a Home Console of the 8 generation, and Playstation 4 Sales will raise, i'm sure that this Generation life-time sales will be bigger than 24-25 Millions on Japan.

You also forgot that the PS3, was selling half of the Playstation 4, until recently, now the sales have stopped, and Playstation 4, is getting momentum.

This fail in Sales is because of the Handheld market, those articles about "24 Years Low" they count the Handheld market, previous gen the Nintendo DS, and the PSP, sold 53 Millions of units on Japan, now is less than 27 Millions and we are on the last years of the Handheld generation.

The Home console market on Japan still big, even if it falls the same every year, will take years for someone to take Japan's Place, as the second biggest country for Console Gaming, you can Spin it how much you want, but now, the Present day, Japan is Much bigger than  any other country, with the exception of USA, for the Console Gaming.

Germany's Last gen numbers are 12  Millions of Home consoles sold in total, something like this 12-13 Millions, this is 50-55% of what Japan Did.

France's Last gen numbers are 15.6 Millions of home consoles sold in Total, is 60% of What japan did.

Now the numbers are, France with 70% of what japan did, and Germany, with 75%.

We still don't have a main Final Fantasy game, neither a Dragon Quest game, so wait atleast after Final Fantasy XV's Release, after that you can  argue.

at this time in the gen Japan had 2 times  the numbers of home consoles sold that it is, but Xbox 360, was not a failure, and Wii, was a monster.

the Wii, sold 60% of his life-time sales on japan in the first 2 years, the Playstation 2, only  passed the 10 millions mark in 2014, 4 years after Wii, did it, and the 2 ended up selling nearly the same on Japan.

We are talking about Home console market, you say that the market is dead and only use Playstation,  to state  that the Whole market is dead, since the 7 Generation, Nintendo is a Equal rival for Sony.

I didn't use word like "dying market" but home console market in Japan is definitely in huge decline compared to previous generation.

PS4 around 25 months on Japanese market, Wii U one year more, PS4/Wii U/X1 sold 5.7m till now, now look sales numbers for PS3/Wii/Xbox360 around 25 months after launch, 10.5m.

http://www.vgchartz.com/weekly/42435/Japan/

http://www.vgchartz.com/weekly/39789/Japan/

Wii, was a bigger sucess Worldwide, Xbox One, until now, after 1 Year on the Japanese market it sold nearly what Xbox 360, sold on Launch in Japan, Xbox 360, had over 1 Million of Units sold in japan, in the first 25 Months, now Xbox One, have over 60 Thousands, this is a 94% Decrease on Xbox sales on Japan.

Playstation 4, is ahead of Playstation 3, in the same time of their life, Playstation 4, needs to sell over 10 Millions of units in japan until 2021 to be ahead of Playstation 3, and this is clearly possible.

It still needs what, 8 million more units? With pretty much all major console moving games on the horizon, price cuts, VR, and redesign ahead, + it is tracking ahead of the PS3, I think it is doable. Never the less, anyone who thinks it will do under 8 million LT in Japan is delusional. Even if it is already half in its life cycle It still can achieve those numbers.

The only wild card that could hurt its sales is a massively successful NX, but we still don't know anything about it.

They saw Sword Art Online. VR is doomed there :p

Of Course, but point here is that console market in Japan is in huge decline.

Despite PS4 is selling much better worldwide than PS3, in Japan sales of PS3 and PS4 are very similar for same time frame (two links that I posted). Definitely is possible that PS4 hits 10m in Japan, but I dont see that will be case, PS3 had unusually very long life without successor, I don't think that will be case with PS4. I think PS4 will end around 7-8m in Japan.