A good roundup of an older story. Dan Tochen runs GamingJapan.net and is an acquaintance of mine.

As it turns out, they [the Japanese gamers] love it. Japanese reviewers gave Medal of Honor: Rising Sun a thumbs-up, praising the “extremely intense” action. Electronic Arts affirms that the game is selling well in Japan. (Some American reviewers weren’t as kind when it came out stateside. Gamespot called the controls “clumsy.”) But the Japanese critics never mentioned the elephant that was trumpeting in the living room. “Basically, they all reviewed it without ever really mentioning the fact that it was, you know, Pearl Harbor,” says Dan Tochen, an American game journalist who was in Tokyo during the launch. As the online comic strip Penny Arcade joked, “I don’t see what’s so odd about it. The people of modern Japan are simply taking on the role of foreign soldiers, killing their fathers and grandfathers in a grisly pantomime of history’s greatest tragedy.”

Lost in Translation – Why Japanese gamers love avenging Pearl Harbor. [slate.msn.com]
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun comes to Japan [gamespot.com]
Penny Arcade! Hell Yeah, It’s Odd [penny-arcade.com]

I was assuming that “Lost In Translation” wouldn’t be much of a draw for Japanese audiences. Looks like the distributor agrees with me.

Japanese distributor Tohokushinsha Co. said “Lost In Translation” is opening so late because it’s not typical Hollywood fare. Big-budget films tend to debut in Japan within weeks of their U.S. premiere at major cineplexes, while smaller ones stay at obscure theaters.
Even with all the publicity, Tohokushinsha is playing it safe. The movie will open at one Tokyo theater with seating for about 300, and so far the only advertisement is a Web site with a trailer and a brief plot introduction, company spokesman Yosuke Watanabe said.

Japan abuzz with ‘Translation’ reviews [mlive.com]