Xbox 360 sees 157% sales growth in Japan this year

We're starting to get comfortable with the formerly apocalyptic notion that the Xbox 360 is finding success a niche in Japan. Famitsu Marketing data (via GameDaily) shows that year-over-year growth of the console has been an impressive 157% during the first seven months of this year.

Of course, with a fairly low Xbox 360 user base to begin with in Japan, a large percentage increase in sales doesn't mean much. The console has sold 748,992 and Microsoft hopes to hit the million milestone "as soon as possible." The console has seen significant sales spikes this year, thanks to Tales of Vesperia and Infinite Undiscovery. We've placed the Japanese lifetime unit sales after the break for comparison.

Lifetime unit sales (source: Famitsu):

• DS Lite: 17,080,747
• PSP: 10,181,888
• DS: 6,449,206
• Wii: 6,826,612
• PS3: 2,369,484
• Xbox 360: 748,992