Shinobis post has been translated from the entry on the 20th. Im not sure if this info is buried in another thread or not but I didn't see it so I decided to post it here.

 Taken from GAF                                                                                                   

This officially puts DQ:S initial retail orders (not preorders by customers people) ahead of Minna no golfs 300k. Do you all think its because retailers have been selling alot of preorders for DQ:S and have in turn increased their orders for it? Or is it just based on confidence behind Wii game sales so far? Maybe they just realized the game was called DragonQuest and immediately ordered more?

And even more important, will the increased orders be needed? Will this game sell the way the retailers seem to feel it will? Personally I'm not entirely sure about the whole thing. I'm kind of still on the fence about Minna. I really love the hotshots golf games however so my bias for that game is certainly at play here, but I think it will do exceptionally well for a PS3 game. But Jesus Christ, they are going to be advertising DQ:S in Movie Theaters? Thats pretty impressive too, but Minna Golf also has a console bundle! And those help sales also as it gives a discount to new console owners. I'm going to be looking closely at how these two titles square off against each other. What are your thoughts? 

Hrmm interesting. Well I think the name Dragon Quest will push at least 200K plus in the first week in Japan no matter how good the game is. Whether it meets those 350K expectations depends on if it's a good game or just another cheap milking attempt. I guess we just have to wait and see.

To be fair, they could always bump up orders for EG5 as well. But this isn't unexpected. DQ:S has been on Amazon.jp's top seller list (in the top 10) for a few months now.

It should sell most of it's initial shipment first week. Where it goes from there is anyone's guess. Hopefully it does well.

I would say that increase is because of pre-orders.
Very interested in seeing Minna sales.

When do each release?

Mina releases July 25th, I believe, the same week as Oblivion for 360.

DQS launches in 2 weeks as far as I know.

Ah I didnt know about the amazon top sellers list and DQ:S. And I was thinking after I posted this, I wonder if the 300k retail orders for Minna include the bundles? Its always so hard to figure the bundles in Japan. I wonder if there are 300k retail standalone copies and 50k bundles? You never know.

I think the most interesting sales number in the upcoming month for me in Japan is Minna, it isn't important how well the game sells, I think 300 - 450k is acceptable for that game first week.

What IS important is whether there is a major boost in hardware or not, if it boosts for 2 or 3 weeks, or if it becomes an on-going boost, it's what the PS3 REALLY needs.

I agree that Minna is what matters towards PS3 Japanese market penetration, but I don't think Minna (a very casual oriented game) well sell with the PS3's very hardcore price. I'd say DQS will do better overall.

 It seems like preording in Japan is not a big practice.  We keep seeing long line ups for games, if people preordered in Japan, there would be smaller lines.  If we hear about preorders, we should then assume it's store's preordering their first shipments and not people preordering (Which I know you assume as well).  I wonder why stores in Japan don't do preorders... it seems like it would be a much better way to handle game releases there... then again a long line up might gaurantee better sales for other games, as the people waiting in line may not want to have to keep standing in line to get several games they wanted to purchase.

I really don't put too much stock into pre-orders. Some games with a lot of pre-orders fall completely flat. Other games with seemingly few pre-orders winding up selling millions.