For the period 6/27 - 7/6 in Japan, the weekly sales charts see a big new DS release...

Courtesy of Media-Create, we have the most recent sales figures from Japan.

This week saw the japanese software market finally give a strong showing after months of underperforming figures, with sales at a healthy 112% of the weekly average. The strong performance can likely be attributed to a robust release week that saw a number of new PS2 and handheld titles styling the charts.

In particular for the DS, the week saw the spiritual follow-up to the hit DS Training For Adults: Work Your Brain in Yawaraka Atama Juku (or Gentle Brain Exercises.) The game (if it can be classified as such) did not disappoint, moving a reported 73,000 units in its initial week to come in at an impressive number 2 on the charts (just behind a new Gundam game for the PS2, which always makes for stiff competition.) Meanwhile, Work Your Brain continued to show off impressive legs by ranking at number 7 while popular new kid's game Mushiking (which absolutely torched the charts last week) moved a much more sane (yet still impressive) number of copies to place at number 5.

On the hardware side the DS maintained its status as top-selling console although its little brother, the GBA SP, returned to 4th place after a brief spike in sales last week (corresponding with the release of Mushiking) that saw it overtake the PSP.

Notably, this week also saw the PSP join the DS as a million-seller in Japan for the year. The DS had that distinction a couple weeks ago.

Heres the rundown: