The PS3 has gotten some decent games in Japan. HSG5, Gundam Musou, Yakuza, GT5P, and a few more I can't remember.

Japan also has the cheapest PS3 prices in the world already. Plus they got new colors and controllers before everyone else.  

Games and price, maybe even the lack of BC. 60 & 20GB are being sold at double to triple the price of the 40GB on Amazon Japan.

The PS3 is doing so bad in Japan because it got caught up in the "who can be the most like a PC" race with the 360, and forgot Japan doesn't care about online play or shooters.

There's a bunch of other stuff, but it really just comes down to forgetting what made the previous console so succesful, and catering too much to Europe and the US.

It looks like Wii owns Japan for living room consoles. It may be a while before anything can come close to Wii in Japan. It may not happen this generation.

Everybody know it's because japan is casual now/sarcasm/half true. It does seem Japan is taking a liking to mini games. You can't say it's , because of the absence of jrpgs, because the wii doesn't have any good ones either. Japan is also a very innovative country. When something new comes along they jump right on it. That is why things that would usually fail in the U.S succeed in Japan. Another thing that is really making the ps3 look bad in the Japanese eyes are the number of Western games. The ps3 has alot of western games compared to it's predecessors. At least the wii has games that appeal both to the Western Croud, and the Japanese croud. Near the middle-end of it's life I could see the ps3 taking of the same way the psp is right now, but nothing more than that.

I agree with all the posters who cited games as the reason. Since the PS3 launched there, all of the mass marketed heavy hitters out of Sony's 1st and 2nd parties have been extremely western flavoured(Resistance, Heavenly Sword, Drakes Fortune, etc). Nintendo seems to release games with a Japanese tint that appeals to all markets and, it would appear to me, even Microsoft is making more of an effort in Sony's own backyard(albeit, without great results, but points for trying.) While I agree that MGS, WKC, and FF13 will provide Sony a nice bump, I also think Sony has dropped the ball in the Japanese market. It can't keep relying on Konami, Square, Sega(Yakuza) and others(Koei) to pick up the slack. If Sony wants to compete for the consumers yen, it needs to get the hussle out. I'm not saying cede the western market, but couldn't they have used the Lair dev money(just an example) to make a fine Japan-centric game or two? P.S. I own one system atm, a PS3, from which I'm wrtng this. On the cntrlr. And I love Lair.

The 60 and 20 GBs have been around for a very long time (since launch) and are similarly priced retail wise. If Amazon has them higher than it is likely from their marketplace rather than from them direct. Adding another model with BC will not do anything for PS3 sales in Japan.

Sony needs Final Fantasy XIII
it really MUST be out at latest early december in Japan

They are waiting for a remodeled ps3 something all 360 owners should have done.

Imagine how bad it would be for Sony
to not have FFXIII during the important month december in Japan

Sony must be stressing Square about that..