I don't really think Japanese gaming industry is in trouble, they are selling the same they are used to sell, but West market got much bigger, so Japan look in trouble now... 

Anyway, I have some ideas to make Japan gold time come back, put yours too.

-Put english subtitles options in almost every game, many anime fans would like to import they're favourite anime game or many games have better dubbing in Japanese than in English or even would like to play that games that we know for sure aren t coming officially to West.Mainly small publishers that don't have how realesethey're games worlwide. In other worlds, estimulate players from others regions import games from japan.

- Western devs. should invest more in Japan, i think that a western game never sold a million in Japan alone. Make more advertising about they're games, estimulate the niches for shooters, rock games, movie games and this stuff. 

-Making more high budget games, if you look to the japanese chart most of the games are too economical, West is full of high-budget in top games, the only ones in japanese chart i THINK are Dissidia:Final Fantase and Monster Hunterand i'm not sure!). Japanese chart is in need of Top games.

Why bother? The Japanese market is tiny compared to US/EU simply because of population, and the economy.

Investing lots of money would only see a slight growth which just wouldn't be worth it, in the end.

The Japanese economy is terrible and the population is quickly aging. Basically the country is getting poorer and older. Not a good recipe for selling things that appeals to younger people with money.

Just like I said, things are just how they aways were in Japan. If the industry needs to expand it would be better to expand for other regions like Latin America, China, India, Russia...

I think the japanese market is shrinking YoY, stats say so. And its very unstable as well. In the past it was bigger, nes, snes and psx generations had many games of the favorite japanese genres sell million. Nowadays you don´t know if this RPG is going to sell well or not anymore. If it weren´t for Nintendo to tap into the casual crowd, the japanese market would have slumped even deeper.

f developers concentrateon handhelds then they lose their western market share, if they concentrate on HD consoles then their domestic sales slump. We´ll have to wait and see how the upcoming 3rd party Wii support does in Japan and worldwide.

What japanese publishers and developers should do is focus on smart marketing and build a friendly, open community to treat their fans and amass new ones. They should concentrate on a style that has a worldwide appeal, but still not let go of the distinctive japanese one. This stuff has already started happening, so they are on the right road. What bothers me is, if Wii 3rd party hardcore software fails, then what?...

Japan is more focused on handhelds than consoles. Maybe Sony should come out with a new Monster hunter or a new FF title that has cross play like Lair did. Maybe have certain features like Online or better cut scenes when you play it on the PS3 but still let you play the bulk of the game and progress through the story while playing it on the PSP.

It's not the Japanese market, it's the consoles there that need saving.

Gundam vs. Hello Kitty

The Japanese arent impressed by HD visuals I dont think they need any off that high budget stuff or online.

Anyways Japanese have moved on from consoles to handhelds. Let em be.

most of them are too busy working and always on the move to beat their grandparents so the best way to save consoles are to make it mobile... I wish i can make my own PS3 laptop damn!