According to Takashi Sensui, executive officer and chief of the home and entertainment division of Microsoft Japan, the company is planning to double the amount of Xbox 360 games available in Japan next year. The plan is to offer over 500 games by the end of 2008, a sequel for Blue Dragon quite possibly among them, Sensui said.

The first Blue Dragon significantly boosted the sales of the 360 in Japan and sold 80,000 copies in one week. Since, 360 has had a few other glimmers of hope here and there. It even outsold the PS3 once, no easy thing to accomplish in Sony’s homeland.

Other highlights include the console actually selling out and a 400% boost in sales. And most recently, Lost Odyssey from the producer of Final Fantasy sold 40K copies during its first day.

Microsoft has so far sold only around 500K Xbox 360’s total in Japan but they know all too well how important Japan is. And if they keep pushing and manage to get more games aimed at the Japanese market out the door, they might just achieve relative success in the Land of the Rising Sun.