Gears of War does the business in Japan

"Japanese gamers suffer from motion sickness when attempting to play first-person shooters, and that's why the genre doesn't sell well in Japan."

Fallacy?

According to Media Create sales data released today, Gears of War ranks at number seven in this week's Top 30 Japanese sales chart. This is remarkable for two reasons: a) Gears of War is an Xbox 360 game, b) Gears of War is a first third-person shooter. 33,212 Japanese gamers have either decided to try one last time to conquer their motion sickness or, more likely, they've never had a problem with nausea and think Gears of War looks like a beauty*. (Last week's review in Famitsu, which awarded the game a score of 37/40, will have provided some reassurances.)

[Update: *Or, even likelier still, they're cleverer than this blogger is when he first wakes up.]