The Tokyo High Court has ruled in favor of an ex-Konami Digital Entertainment employee who sued the company for discriminating against her. Yoko Sekiguchi alleged that Konami demoted her because she took six months of maternity leave in 2009 and slashed her salary by ¥200,000. The demotion and pay cut happened when she returned from her maternity leave, she claimed.

Nintendo  has revealed that it has sold over four million 3DS systems in Japan, with half a million units being sold in Japan alone last week - according to Enterbrain. Two of its 3DS games became million-sellers in the region last week as well. So why is the 3DS doing so well now? According to analysts a combination of a price cut earlier this year coupled with new and popular software has caught the attention of consumers.

New data released by Japanese retail research company Media Create reveals that the 20 titles that launched with the PlayStation Vita sold a combined 300,000 units. This happened, according to the firm, in the first two days of Vita's launch. The system sold an estimated 325,000 units in the same timeframe. According to Andriasang - who translated Media Create's numbers, this gives the Vita an attach-rate of around 0.92 games per system. That rate might be a bit higher because these numbers don't take into account games purchased online through PlayStation Store.

Sony President of worldwide studios, Shuhei Yoshida, said that Japanese consumers have become more open to Western games. Of course, anyone following the sales and ratings of Skyrim in Japan already knows this. Speaking to the European PlayStation Blog, Yoshida said that Everybody's Golf and Uncharted: Golden Abyss were the most pre-ordered games in the Vita's Japanese line-up. The system launched last week. Yoshida added that the prominence of the US-developed Uncharted in a line-up dominated almost entirely by Japanese games is an indication of a larger trend in the region.

Despite a recent security breach in November and contending with the timing of Zynga's initial public offering, Nexon will makes its debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange December 14, according to Reuters. The social and online game developer will reportedly sell at around ¥1300 each with Nexon expecting to raise around ¥91 billion, or $1.2 billion USD, with a market value of ¥560 billion.

Bethesda Softworks’ newest open-world single-player RPG The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has managed to do what no Western game has ever done before: get a perfect score in Japan's most popular and prominent magazine, Famitsu. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has become the first Western game to receive a perfect 40/40 review score in the Japanese magazine - pulling off what games like with Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire, Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, and Call of Duty: Black Ops, Gears of War 3, and FIFA 12 could not do.

With the pending release of PlayStation Vita in Japan, Sony has finally revealed how owners of UMD-based games will be able to get digital versions of them on their new PlayStation hand-held devices. All games will have to be re-purchased to be played on Vita, but those who can prove via UMD that they already own games will get a discount when re-purchasing the same content digitally.

Ding.Dong.Ditch. It looks like Japan is not comfortable with the giant sex-toy weapon in Saint's Row The Third. Even though the game received the highest rating it could for its content in the region (CERO Z - basically adults only), the "Saints Row Penetrator" had to be altered for the game to be released in the region.

Free-to-play MMO company Nexon is planning an initial public offering on the Tokyo Stock Exchange next month, according to a TechCrunch report. The IPO is reportedly worth $1.3 billion USD, or ¥100 billion. The TechCrunch report is based on a report in the Japanese business paper The Nikkei. If the valuation turns out to be accurate, it could make Nexon the most valuable IPO in Japan this year. The IPO will be handled by Nomura Securities, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, with Nexon expected to be approved for the listing by the end of the week.

It looks like after some tumultuous times at retail in Japan, the Nintendo 3DS is making a comeback. According to retail sales data from Media Create, the 3DS managed to move 58,837 units last week, while the PlayStation 3 sold 36,061 units - half of what it did the week prior. If anything the price cut is helping, despite the grumblings from the investor class. The PSP remained mostly flat for the week, while the Wii sold 5,000 more than it did a week earlier.

According to Andriasang only one Western game managed to break into the Future Awards ranks at the Tokyo Game Show - and it wasn't Call of Duty. EA's Battlefield 3 stood out like a sore thumb in the awards list, honored alongside such Japanese darlings as Final Fantasy XIII-2, Final Fantasy Type-0, Monster Hunter G, and Phantasy Star Online 2. The award winners are chosen based on attendee feedback - who are asked to choose their favorites among any game on display on the show floor or announced at the event.

The Tokyo Game Show is over and organizers have released the final attendance numbers, among other information. According to organizers, a total of 222,668 people attended the event during its four day run, up from last year's number of 207,000 attendees.

A new single day attendance record was set as well on September 17 when 86,251 showed up to take part on the festivities of the opening day. Sunday attendance was down slightly to 83,744 people, compared to last year.

Nintendo stocks declined 2.3 percent - the biggest decline in more than two weeks - in Osaka trading on the growing concern that price cuts to the 3DS will not do enough for the company to meet its full-year sales target. Nintendo stock fell 2.3 percent to 13,160 yen, the biggest drop the company has seen since August 24. Overall, the stock has declined 45 percent this year.

IGDA Japan is organizing the Fukushima Game Jam, a developer event that it hopes will stimulate game development following the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last year. The Game Jam is organized with the help 9Leap, a student development contest and will take place from August 27 to 28 in Minami-Souma city. The event is modeled after Global Game Jam hosted by the IGDA each year, where development teams take a theme given by organizers to create a game in a limited amount of time.

Nintendo 3DS hand-held sales in Japan climbed to the second-highest levels since the system's release last February as the company cut prices by about 40 percent, according to data gathered by research firm Enterbrain Inc. Nintendo sold 214,821 3DS units in Japan last week, the most since the 371,326 units it sold in the last week of February when the system was introduced. Nintendo cut the price of the 3DS to 15,000 yen ($195) on Aug. 11 from 25,000 yen.

In one the oddest investor complaints ever, Nintendo's shareholders are reportedly mad at the maker of Mario, Zelda and the Wii, for not leveraging its core franchises on Apple's iOS platforms. Apparently investors haven't noticed for the life of the company's video game industry involvement that Nintendo does not swim in any other ponds but its own. According to a report from Bloomberg's Mike Firn (reporting from Tokyo), investors are now saying that it should develop titles for Apple's iPhone.

If you happen to live in Japan, you may or may not notice (you will now because we're telling you about it right here, so "you're welcomed") that the Japanese retail version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution has undergone two edits to protect audiences from "body organs and sexual objects."

Japanese game publisher and developer Gust has halted shipments of its latest Atelier role-playing game, Atelier Meruru, after the Japanese ratings board CERO raised objections to some scenes. The board said that the game featured some scenes that do not fit its "A" rating.

Sony of Japan has issued a small statement on the continued downtime of the PlayStation Network and its Qriocity services in Japan. The company had said that it would relaunch both at the end of last month, but that never happened. Sony's new statement offers Japanese players apologies for the long wait and that it needs more time "to make adjustments with the various related parties." The company offers no timeline for when these services will return as it attempts to appease customers, the Japanese government and credit card companies.

The hold-up relates mostly to Sony meeting the strict demands of the government and credit card companies. So far it has not managed to convince either that everything is safe and secure. Further, the government wants Sony to explain how it will give customers confidence again that its services are safe.

Confirming rumors from earlier this month, Sony has opened an official page for the new CECH-3000B model PlayStation 3. The new hardware will begin shipping sometime later this month in Japan.

The official page confirms details from a retail advertisement that was leaked to the public earlier this month. The new model will be available in Charcoal Black, will feature lower power consumption at 200 watts, will weigh around 2.6kg, and will include a 320 gigabyte hard drive. It will be priced at ¥34,980, the same price point for other PS3 models on the market in the region. Accessories include the usual - a Dual Shock 3 controller, power cable, AV cable and USB cable.

Nintendo has suffered its second substantial drop in its stock price just days after its E3 press conference where it announced the Wii U console and controller. On Wednesday the company saw a 5.7 drop in its stock price and today it dipped an additional 5.2 percent (as of this writing). The consecutive declines for the Japanese console maker came after the company announced its new console, but the exact cause is up for interpretation, according to one Japanese financial analyst.

According to Mitsushige Akino, a chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management, the decline has more to do with a perceived shift in the broader videogame universe.

"The product itself is not bad–market expectations had been far too high," Akino told the Wall Street Journal. "..it is also a reflection of structural issues caused by a transformation within the market."

If you’re jonesing to help out with disaster relief in Japan but haven’t yet found the right incentive, maybe a calendar chockfull of cosplayers dressing up as their favorite anime and videogame characters will be just the thing you’re looking for.

Well, it just so happens that Cosplay for a Cause is selling such a calendar, tapping into fans’ love of costuming to raise money to assist in Japan’s disaster relief aid after a tsunami smacked the country around back in March.

“This calendar is full of high quality, never before seen photos, specifically done for this project. Each month will also come with a small illustration done by one of the 4 professional comic book artists involved in the project.

As a way to send Nintendo a "message" about the 3DS' Terms of Service (TOS), anti-DRM group Free Software Foundation urged the community to order the company a cardboard brick. The group put out the call for action on May 9, asking the community to send Nintendo a brick for a brick - referring to the 3DS TOS which gives the company the power to "brick" (permanently disable) the system. The goal set was 200 and today the group announced that it has surpassed that goal.

"The Nintendo 3DS is Defective by Design and your Terms of Service are dubious, devious, and defective for the following reasons," the website's opening remarks to the community read.

Citing a news story in Japanese publication Mainichi Digital, the fine folks at Adriasang report that Sony still plans on relaunching the PlayStation Network and other associated services in the month of May - even as the clock runs out on the month. With the last day of May coming up fast next Tuesday it is still a possibility but a fleeting one.

During its earnings briefing yesterday Sony of Japan said that they have not yet given up on a relaunch in May. Mainichi Digital reports that Sony officials said of the Japanese service, "We have not given up on a May restart."

Nikkei reported last week that Sony was planning to relaunch by the end of the month, but the company has been struggling to deliver information on security requested by the Japanese government and credit card companies.

The Play for Japan charity has announced the tracks that will be on its benefit album set for release in June on iTunes. The charity is being put together to benefit victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunamis earlier this year. Proceeds from the album will go towards helping those providing relief efforts in the region: the Japanese Red Cross.

The album will feature art by Yoshitaka Amano and music from various game composers including Akira Yamaoka, Chance Thomas, Inon Zur, Tommy Tallarico and more. A full list of tracks (provided by Shacknews) can be found below:

While there was mention that the Japanese government was holding up the relaunch of PlayStation Network in the country, credit card companies are also in the mix, along with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). According to a new report from Asahi Shimbun daily (by way of Andriasang), both parties have specific demands of Sony before they will let the company get back to business in its home country.

According to the report, METI and credit card companies are demanding that Sony detail the protections it has put in place for credit card users. In Japan credit card companies are held liable for things such as fraud, so it makes sense that they demand extra security measures from Sony. In the United States the company has an insurance policy in place to provide protection from such problems.

Adriasang is reporting that the PlayStation Network will be back online sometime later this month in Japan. The government had asked the company to provide more assurances that it had better security on its service. PSN users outside of Japan have had access to some of the services since last week.

Delays in Japan were brought on by requests from the government and some credit card companies who wanted more information from Sony. Credit card companies are being hard on Sony because they would be held accountable in the event of card misuse. In America, Sony has insurance to cover that kind of damage.

Play For Japan has managed to raise an impressive $120,000 for Japanese relief efforts since its inception. The charity was put together to support the victims of earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan. A large portion of the country was affected, with nearly 15,000 deaths attributed to the March natural disaster that put the country in turmoil.

Developers, publishers and fans donated game-related merchandise to charity auctions to raise funds for relief organizations such as the Red Cross. The large amount of cash raised to date is a good indicator that the auctions are a great success for the group.

Currently the group is auctioning a variety of God of War-related items. You can check those items out and bid on them here.

While the PlayStation Network has launched in North America, Europe and other regions, the relaunch of Sony’s services in Japan has been held up by regulators in Japan. According to a Dow Jones report, the PSN will not be relaunched in Japan until Sony provides assurances to the government that it has added additional security to its network services.

"We met with Sony on May 6 and 13, and basically we want two things from them," said Kazushige Nobutani, director of the Media and Content Industry department at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

"The first is preventative measures. As of May 13, Sony was incomplete in exercising measures that they said they will do on the May 1 press conference," he said, although he refused to provide exact details of the measures for security reasons.

Sony Japan says that its PlayStation Network and Qriocity online services may not come back online until the end of May. Speaking to http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-09/sony-s-playstation-qriocity-ser... ">Bloomberg by phone, spokesman Shigenori Yoshida told the publication on Sunday that the services would remain offline and that the company is uncertain as to when they will be back online. Sony shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity April 20 because of security breach initiated by unknown hackers.

Yoshida added that the company is testing and adopting improved security measures and that the service would "restart the services fully by May 31."

Of course "fully" means fully operational with all services intact. Sony has said in the past that it would restart some of the services sooner than later.

We will continue to follow this story as it develops.