2) GTA 3 and Vice City were very successful in Japan
This is from IGN:

"GTA III arrived in Japan September 2003 and managed to sell more than 300,000 copies before the year ended."

That's not a high number. It's just not their style of game. Admittedly, for that type of game, especially a US developed one, that's a high number. But comparitively to the US, that's nothing.

1) The Japanese game review group CERO is stricter than the US ESRB system in many ways regarding violence.
I can't find any information on that, but I have no reason to believe it's not true. They've also recently been established, within the past few years, right? Before that, what did they have? [/quote]