The Japanese (actually, this applies to Asians in general) are very good at making standalone devices, which is why they owned the console industry prior to the 6th generation. Creating integrated platforms where software plays a significant role isn't something that the Japanese are very good at. That's why when Microsoft came in with Xbox Live they were able to steal a huge chunk of the market share.

This is also why none of the Korean or Taiwanese cell phone makers that had huge market shares were able to beat Apple to the iPhone (and even now, all they do is provide hardware for Android, which is American as well), or even beat RIM to making an email-friendly cell phone.