Xboxs, 1 per customer, and Sony PS3
The XBox 360 is getting closer to release in Japan. I believe the official release date is the 10th of December.
Everybody so far seems very unexcited about it. It seems as though more people are more inclined to wait for the more powerful PS3, rather than settle for a console that is as yet pretty unestablished in Japan.
This will not stop pricks however, from going to as many stores as they can and buying hundreds of Xbox 360s. Aforementioned pricks then go to sites such as http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/, and then sell them off to people who were slow on the mark, and didn't go and purchase their Xbox(or PSP, or Gamecube, or any new release hardware) at 12:01am on the release day.
Last Christmas was especially bad, with the PSP having huge demand, but very low supply. As a result, anyone who wanted a PSP had to pay ridiculous amounts of money on similar auction sites, sometimes up to 2 or 3 times the retail price. Crazy.
This time, retailers seem to be wising up and implementing "one device per customer" deals, however Mr AuctionBastard and his 30 close friends will quite easily get around this system.
In any case, it will be interesting to see how many Xbox's Microsoft manages to move with their early release gambit, compared to what will most likely be a more mature release from Sony with their PS3 package.
Stay tuned.