I was just reading a preview of Naruto Rise of a Ninja in Play Magazine and it's obvious that they're pouring a lot of money into it and that it is shaping up very nicely.  What struck me as odd though is that they never mentioned selling it in Japan and almost implied that it wasn't going to be sold there.  Why would a company create an expensive triple-A anime based game and not have Japan as a major consideration?  Wouldn't a game like this be just what the 360 needs in Japan amd wouldn't it be where the bulk of the sales of such a game might come from?

Maybe cause no matter how appealing a game is to Japanese, if it's on 360 it's not selling as well as it deserves and Ubisoft decided to skip trying that. Or maybe they are gonna release it there and we just don't know...

True.  I just looked at the wikipedia page for the game just in case I got the wrong impression from Play Magazine and they basically say the same thing and don't list it as coming out in Japan either.  Especially strange considering that they're going to the trouble of having an option to use the original Japanese voice actors in the game.

I just found the answer to my question. Apparently Ubisoft only got the rights for North and South America and Europe.

Another answer Legend that you probably didn't notice since you don't watched Sub'd anime (yes I'm that much of a nerd) is that Naruto Rise of a Legend is 5 years behind Naruto in Japan... I don't think they want to play a storyline they watched 5 years ago.

They don't seem to mind playing Final Fantasy, Super Mario and all the other remakes that they've played before.