I'm not one to typically skip 10 pages to comment on something, but I was busy getting laid last night, so I apologize for the delayed response to this:
it's funny, I would have said that in order to get the most japanese support you'd need to have the best selling console in japan by far, except don't they kind of have that now? And Sony is still killin em in japan.
Which leads to an even bigger challenge for nintendo. If they want an ecosystem where consumers are buying all kinds of games from all kinds of devs, they're going to totally need to revamp their image from casual console to gamers console. But I think Nintendo doesn't want to alienate the casual crowd so......I don't know how they're going going to do it. The Wii-U is their attempt at having their cake and eating it too, but that's much easier said than done.
I've said before and I will say again: Japan only bets on one console per generation and, because of this, they were previously perceived as the "kingmakers". Due to the success of the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo being so VASTLY different architecturally, Japanese developers didn't want to gamble on Nintendo's proposal of the next generation and sank all of their money into developing for the PS3.
Meanwhile, Sony's launch of the PS3 was a complete failure, and since they bet on the wrong horse and were assured that in the beginning years of the PS3 that nothing would sell due to price tag, it FORCED Japanese developers to migrate their development to multi platform on the only other console with anywhere close to matching horsepower. Multi-platform games simply DIDN'T EXIST in Japanese development culture (with the exception of late after-the-fact ports), so it hindered them terribly.
Also, console makers define the direction of their audience, and Sony seemed set to completely and utterly abandon Japan by focusing their internal development on the West (because, as I have also said in the past, the first console of the generation typically DEFINES the generation in a lot of ways), causing Japanese developers to think they had to follow suit (which is a common misconception that they have always had), and they suffered greatly because of that, essentially giving them a double-whammy.
By the time they realized that the Wii was the console pulling ahead in sales worldwide, it was too late to alter course.
With WiiU being closer to its competitors this time around, there's no fear that what they do with the WiiU can't be migrated to another console in case it's a failure, is more likely to sell in Japan and gets to ride a wave of confidence based on Nintendo's previous success with the Wii. Not to mention more modest specs making it safer for them to sink their money into it initially and porting up only if necessary.
I feel this is a non-issue: WiiU will attract Japanese developers to it just by the very nature of it being first to market with a stronger sales track record and greater parity with the competition making it a less frightening proposition. Hell, the graphics whores at TEAM NINJA are in love with it, I think we have no reason to be concerned on this front.
Nintendo's big challenge is capturing the West, if only for the PERCEPTION it leads to at the beginning of the generation, as Western titles might lose relevance in the next generation (just as JRPGs did in this generation). For all we know, Japan could regain its "kingmaker" status and lead the generation as it has in the past with consoles.
