Here I will add this for visual clarity on the console situation:

http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii&reg1=Japan&cons2=PS3&reg2=Japan&cons3=X360&reg3=Japan&start=39299&end=39383

First, the "20,000 range" is from 20-30 thousand so 20,956 falls in there...

To help you sort this out.  There have been posts about Japan not being important to the gaming industry and other posts about the Japanese game market lull, etc.  I was just trying to see what everyone was talking about so I went to see the numbers for myself and these were my findings.  I just wanted people to know that while the DS and Wii may have fallen in sales, there are still a number of systems that are doing better now than a couple of months to a year ago. 

20,000 range to me means +/- 2k (aka 10% which is standard).

Back when this topic first came up I had a chart made up that showed how each console was dropping the same percentage each week. Its not hard to see how the same percentage drop week after week means a market effect.

The 360's recovery is in large part due to its negligible sales levels but also because of Halo 3. The PS3 has had price cuts in Japan since then and has returned to about the level it was before. The Wii has started back up to its old position and preliminary data for next week says it should be at least 60k. The Wii's return is due to SMG and the approaching holidays.

So they are all returning to normal they just needed individual factors to give them a boost.

 I did note that you had said most of those things :).  However, I'm not sure if you can definitively say nothing is wrong with the japanese market.  The PS3 and the 360 have marginal sales at best, even with the recent increase, and across platforms, real games are selling poorly.  It's hitting the PSP (see the attach rate), and it's hitting the PS3 and 360 (better attach rate, but they're selling to a very small market of hardcore gamers).  And it's hitting the Wii.

The only platform that makes me feel better about gaming in Japan is the DS, honestly, which only seems to have reduced sales of Square-Enix games - but they're starting to grind the Final Fantasy name into the ground, so its understandable.  No more re-releases or remakes, please.

Ok, there are more than one way to look at the sales. If we go in line with your thinking, that there's nothing wrong with the console sales in Japan, we have to assume that there's only a certain amount of people, who will buy a new console in a certain amount of time. If so, good offers from Sony and M$ have diverted potential Wii/DS buyers to competitors.
But, it doesn't work that way, although it definately have had effect. Usually when you make better offer from your product, it diverts some buyers from your competitor to you, but it also makes some people to purchase your product earlier than planned and also bring in some totally new customers. With that in mind, console sales are in generally in line with last year, which means, that last year there had to be some special offer, which equals this year, or the market is full, in terms of number of potential customers, or people are waiting for a better offer from one of the competitors on the market. Or maybe they don't wait.

As long as consoles are being made Japan will ALWAYS be of PRIME importance.

Those who say Japan's importance is fading don't fully understand the context of history. Consoles exist BECAUSE of Japan, primarily Nintendo backed up by Sony. If not for them, everything would be PCs.

The Wii became a little mortal after months and months of immortality. Big whoop.

When the following weeks' numbers come up, all those doomsday reports about "Wii might be a fad and will peter out" will look silly to be frank.

2008 begins the first full year of TRUE Nintendomination. Larval stage/Phase 1 is completing. Onto Phase 2, the Pupa stage.

Think you're sick of Nintendo on the charts now? Boy, you better watch out come the next year. It's gonna make you absolutely naseous!

John Lucas 

Hmm, i would say there was the usual drop for a month or so, but that the Wii and DS just stayed low for longer compared to the others, partly because of the numerous price cuts/remodels and highly anticipated games being released during the lack of anything for Wii, and anything significant for DS.

So no, i wouldn't say there was a proper lull either, but i would bet at a different time of year all the attempts by Sony (and Microsoft, though they didn't really focus on Japan) to increase sales would have helped a lot more....yet during the yearly low sales period, they didn't even manage to get PS3 to outsell Wii for a week even with nothing holding Wii up....and PSP slim certainly helped sales, but didn't manage much even against a low DS.
PS2 probably survived through the whole period because of it's age, and the 360 is hard to use as any evidence, because it is recently seeing increasing popularity in Japan as it shakes off the original XBs shackles.

not sure i made any sense.