A console by itself is just a means through which to play games. Judging from not only hardware sales but also the software charts, it would seem the Japanese are simply more interested in playing the games offered by the Switch, from Pokemon to Splatoon 2 to Smash Bros.

Only 3 PS4 games sold over a million in Japan in the almost 5 years it was out until VGC tracking ended at the close of 2018, while Switch already had 5 million sellers in Japan after less than 2 years.

Japan is a becoming a very niche market. They are only interested in a few franchises, that get the ball rolling, and of course being a handheld also helps. Even with switch reckoning 3ds software sales, and  it being a handheld and a console, it's still not lighting up the charts, and selling worse then 3ds. Just look at psp sales, it only had monster hunter games sell over a million, and it got over 20 million.

3DS had 27 million sellers in Japan; so again it comes down to having the games that the Japanese want. Switch has yet to get a lot of the 3DS's heavy hitters like Animal Crossing, an original Monster Hunter, and core Pokemon, not to mention it's about twice as expensive as 3DS was at this point in its life.

As for PSP, being home to 4 games from one of Japan's most beloved franchises was really all it needed.

Where are you getting it had 27 million sellers? vgchartz only has 12. 4 of those are are pokemon.

http://www.vgchartz.com/games/games.php?page=1&results=50&name=&console=3DS&keyword=&publisher=&genre=&order=JapanSales&ownership=Both&boxart=Both&banner=Both&showdeleted=&region=All&goty_year=&developer=&direction=&showtotalsales=1&shownasales=1&showpalsales=1&showjapansales=1&showothersales=1&showpublisher=1&showdeveloper=0&showreleasedate=1&showlastupdate=0&showvgchartzscore=0&showcriticscore=0&showuserscore=0&showshipped=0&alphasort=&showmultiplat=No

That's much better then expected. Hopefully switch can start selling much better in japan with a revision, and a cheaper model. it's basically the last hope for that market.

I think it will pick up and have better legs than the 3DS in the long run; I think it's a slower burner as it's still 30,000 Yen there and has yet to get

a lot of the games that propelled 3DS sales to such heights. They are coming though; by the end of this year it'll have a core Pokemon, Animal Crossing,

and Dragon Quest.

EDIT: Thread is broken for some reason, is there a fix for this?

when you consider switch is the only console/handheld actually doing descent numbers, i hope it does much better then 3ds. 

Yeah with Japan seemingly difting more towards smartphone gaming, I hope that Switch

helps keep dedicated gaming in Japan alive and well. I think that between games like Mario Maker 2,

Dragon Quest 11, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, and more, plus price cuts and revisions, it has years

of healthy sales ahead of it in the land of the rising sun.

Ps4 has over one hundred games that sold at least 100k in japan Switch probably not even 1/3 of that. Japan is the only country that switch has outsold the ps4 and if you dont think portability is the biggest reason then you are delusional