@NeoRatt: Well, my knowledge of the Japanese market is very reduced, but I wonder if it wouldn't be better for MS's image if they shipped enough consoles... I'm sure they have someone doing market research who could conclude that a 5K shipment would certainly not be enough for a day, let alone a week!

I just think it's lousy that after producing the Elite model for so long there can still be shortages in a territory.

It seems to me that the only valid excuse is low interest in this model from the retailers.

Maybe.  But, interest will change if demand changes...  (No, I'm not predicting a 360 take-over in Japan... It may do better though...  Hard not to...)

I stand corrected...  But, to be honest those were huge games from a Japanese perspective...  In general 360 has not faired very well in Japan.  But, fortunes may be changing.  With Ace Combat 6, Lost Odyssey, Beautiful Katamari, the new Japanese arcade classics, etc. I would expect better overall sales.

I want Microsoft to be successful there, but there is a huge stigma against any foreign ideas and games in Japan.  They like things to be home grown. 

Interesting. I wonder how many units they shipped to Japan.

In slightly related news, I'm finding that several stores in my area are constantly out of Pros. I never thought I would see that in October, especially three weeks after Halo.

Microsoft is making huge improvement over in Japan. Bringing the RPG's and making a nice 360 outside design, not the insider (poor GPU heatsink). 360 will do some more time and hopefully get more users into the mix, to help out the next Microsoft console.

Was the Elite the only new SKU? What about the Halo SKU, was that even released in Japan? It would also be interesting to see attach rates of Halo to the Elite.

The Halo 360 was released around the same time as Halo 3. 9/27 if I remember correctly. The Elite was just released this past week, 10/11 here. I'm guessing that was part of the increase in 360 sales during the Halo 3 release week as well in Japan.