At first you'd think it'd be a smart move for Sony to launch in Japan first, but it's like Sony is pulling a Sega Saturn(not quite as bad, but sort of. Saturn was more like. Surprise!!!!) Almost every title in the Japanese launch line up is either developed by a western developer, which rarely ever sells well in Japan, or aimed towards the western audience(It's Ridge Racer. Riiidge Raaaccer!!)

Releasing Vita in Japan against such a strong Nintendo line up and very few games that the Japanese are interested in of course it's not going to sell well. This in turn is going to hurt the sales in other countries. You'd assume poor sales in one area would be poor sales in another so it will put you off in buying it.

Either Sony should have released the Vita in the west first, which is where the line up was aimed for. Or they should have held off and released the Vita in all major regions at once. If they released it in all regions, this would have made it so the Japanese didn't think they were being snubbed after supporting the PSP well, this would have given more time for other games to be closer to development, so more Japanese themed titles would be released in the near future, and the weak sales in Japan wouldn't have mattered to western gamers because they'd see the higher sales in all other regions.