Japan's PS2 market proves alive and well in the week ending April 8th.

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

In software, the week's sales offered a far more diverse picture than had been seen in many months due to the DS' overwhelming popularity. King-of-the-hill once again, at least for one week, was the aging PS2 on the strength of a recent surge of popular new titles. Even the oft-maligned PSP held its presence with two new releases factoring into the Top 10. For Nintendo, titles such as Yoshi's Island DS and Wii Sports continue to sell well. It is nice to see the charming adventure game Professor Layton still garnering solid support as well.

Hardware sales for the week showed a slight recovery for the DS Lite as it returned to 6-figure territory. PS3 sales, meanwhile, continue their stagnation as the public awaits compelling software reasons to buy Sony's new box. Blockbusters such as Metal Gear Solid 4 can't come fast enough for Sony, it would seem.

The weekly software numbers follow:

The week's console numbers follow: