The Japanese research firm Japan.Internet in collaboration with NTT.com Research published their regular survey on the use and purchasing intention of gaming consoles in Japan, and the results are quite interesting.

Between the 1,072 respondents, who are all internet users, 48.1% had a gaming console of any kind. 53.5% were male, 46.5% were female. The distribution of the various consoles is as follows.

JapanSurvey

Despite a couple pretty weird groupings (Nintendo DS and 3DS, Wii and Wii U bunched together, but in research done by firms that aren't dedicated to gaming, especially in Japan, it's pretty normal to group together consoles that look similar), the distribution is pretty interesting, as it shows that the only 4.5% of the respondents owns a PS4. The percentage increased only 0.2% from the previous poll published in February (the result then was 4.3%).

It's also intriguing to see how quite old consoles still have a place in many households, and the PS2 is still holding strong.

Moving on to purchasing intentions, here's the distribution for the PS4 (between those that don't have one yet).

PS4Survey

7.9% of the respondents want to buy the console, with an increase of 1.3% since February. Those just interested, at least for now, form the 21% of the total, down 2.9% since February.

The Xbox One shows a quite similar trend, with smaller percentages.Note that the survey was conducted in August, so the data is related to before yesterday's launch.

XboxOneSurvey

3.5% of the respondents want to buy Microsoft's new console, up 1% since February. Those just interested went down 0.6% since February and are now at 11.5%.

Looking at the purchasing intention data, considering that Japan has a population of about 127 million, even considering just internet users, there's the potential for strong sales for the PS4 and quite solid for the Xbox One too. That said, Sony and Microsoft will have to labor in order to shift those interested from "interested" to potential buyers.