By the time that Tokyo Game Show 2008 kicked off back in October, a fair few people had already snaffled a copy of Weekly Famitsu, intended for release the following day. It showed Xbox 360’s hardware sales ahead of PS3’s in Japan for the fourth week in a row (It had remained ahead up until early November.)

It set the tone for Microsoft’s ballsy push into the Japanese market that was to be made evident at the convention. With the price of the console now below that of Wii in Japan, and its gaming catalogue promising tasty software deals with Japanese publishers like Square Enix, can Xbox 360 really conquer a region that previously seemed so very uninterested in what it had to offer?

Xbox 360 has had something of brand-image problem from the outset in Japan – its predecessor was widely ridiculed for looking like a space-crate, and for its awkward weight and size, while its range of titles did little to pander to Japanese tastebuds. Although Xbox 360 has improved in each of these areas, there is still a pervasive distrust of this non-Japanese-designed console, reinforced by hardware failure scandals and compounded by the fact that it can feel like a battle to hear the sound of The Cole Train cutting someone in half with a chainsaw when the console’s disc drive really cranks into action.

However, the main sticking point for Xbox 360 in Japan – the perceived western bias of its game catalogue – is changing quickly. Early on, Microsoft managed to tug a few Japanese franchises away from PS3 exclusivity as developers struggled with the complexity of SCE’s platform. But it’s only more recently that the sea-change has really occurred, following a concerted effort by Microsoft to turn Xbox 360 into the premier JRPG platform. Its booth at TGS placed these games at the front, leaving only a small, adults-only space at the back for western titles – an attempt to present 360 as being specifically for Japanese gamers, helped by the association with Microsoft’s neighbouring booths, Square Enix and Capcom.

In stark contrast to previous years, the area around Microsoft’s stand was far busier than the slim pickings to be had in SCE’s hall, and while gamers still seemed to prefer the two-hour-long queue to play Resident Evil 5 at the Capcom booth over the much shorter one on the 360 stand, few would have missed that the company enjoyed a lot more interest this year as a result of its positioning – both physically and philosophically.

Microsoft gave pride of place at its own stand to Square Enix’s 360 releases Star Ocean 4 and The Last Remnant – the former having no intended release on PS3, the latter an unconfirmed future date for Windows and PS3. Whatever negotiations occurred behind closed doors to ensure the release of Square Enix’s games on Xbox 360, the company was ebullient about the console’s prospects in Japan and emphasised the global reach the platform would give its games.

“We expect the Xbox 360 to increase its Japanese market presence even more in the coming months,” Square Enix Executive Officer Shinji Hashimoto tells us. “There is a growing interest in Xbox 360 among Japanese users, due to the release of familiar titles, the increasing appeal of overseas titles, and the excellent reputation of the Xbox 360’s network services.”

However, success of Xbox 360 in Japan is not necessarily vital to Square Enix’s strategy.