Microsoft has finally managed to shift 1.5 million Xbox 360 units in Japan. It launched there in December 2005.

Japanese site Wazap (translated by Kotaku) noted the milestone, although the latest hardware chart shows Microsoft's console still lingering, as usual, in last place.

Worldwide, Xbox 360 sales are currently pegged at a far healthier 55 million total. That's five million more than the PlayStation 3, although still behind the Wii's 86.01 million.

Xbox 360 hit the million mark in Japan in March 2009, after three years and three months on shop shelves. The extra 500,000 sales have taken another two years and three months to notch up.

Will Xbox 360 ever be able to endear itself to Japan? Microsoft hopes so - it used last year's Tokyo Games Show to announce several Kinect-exclusive partnerships with icons of Japanese game development.

Grasshopper's Suda51 revealed codename D, a new Masaya Matsuura game named Haunt was shown, while Capcom announced it was dusting off mech sim Steel Battalion for a Kinect sequel.