The main factor here is the low price of the Wii. If the PS3 was as cheap, Im sure the PS3 would be in the lead. Also the Japanese are very loyal to fellow Japanese companies, hence the 360 not doing very well (because its a product of the US)
Well the main factor is nintendo knowing what people want and are willing to pay for. The games for the wii are quite a lot of fun and its a great "party" console. If it was priced higher it would have been a harder sell, but the wii was pushed into what Sony and Microsoft thought was a niche market...the gamers market, I dare say the "casual gamers" market... Sony and Microsoft have a habit of over complicating things and assuming people want to buy a console to do more than just games. Frankly I think its the other way round, just about everyone I know plays a console for the games, I dont know anyone who bought a 360 or a ps3 because its got a high def dvd player, or because its a mini media center, or any of that.
But in regards to the 360s low numbers, I think its got more to do with the fact that the system went on sale in Nov 05 (according to wikipedia) where as the PS3 launched in Japan in Nov 06, so frankly anyone who wanted a 360, probably already had it by the time these figures printed. I cant really say much for its popularity in Japan, being that I live in the US and have never been to Japan, but I really dont expect an older product to continue to keep ground breaking sales in the face of newer consoles, however they are configured. To a lot of people, "newer" simply means better, aside from the fact that a lot of people like to be able to say "I have the newest".
I dunno, I never really was much of a console junky. I was always into PC gaming because I felt less restricted, if I didnt like the way a game played I could very easily modify it to add my own content, or download content that others have made. Aside from the fact that I can a lot more on the pc as a platform, than I ever could on any console. My brothers owned some of the earlier consoles like the NES/SNES or the various SEGA consoles, but all I ever bought was the original playstation, the N64, and I borrowed my brothers PS2 once he got bored with it (before he sold it of course
) but I dont own or intend to ever buy a new microsoft or sony console...like just about every other computer geek out there I will say it again, if I was to buy a console tomorrow it would probably be a wii