Japanese weekly Wii U hardware sales have fallen below PlayStation Vita's for the first time.

Wii U sold 9633 units in Japan last week, according to number-cruncher Media Create (via NeoGAF). Vita sold 11,456 units - the handheld's highest weekly tally for some time. The bump is probably due to some stores acting early on the recently announced Japanese price drop.

That discount isn't supposed to go into effect until tomorrow, so expect Vita numbers to be higher again next week.

By comparison, PlayStation 3 sold nearly double - 18,529 - what Wii U managed. And as in other weeks, 3DS was miles ahead of everything with 74,729 sales.

Why are Wii U figures so low? As with Europe and the US, Japan also lacks new Wii U games. This week did see the launch of arcade shooter Tank! Tank! Tank!, but it could only muster 13th place.

It doesn't help Nintendo's cause that high profile Wii U games Pikmin 3, The Wonderful 101 and Wii Fit U are still without a release date.