I exaggerated, of course; on Vita was a big deal, and the Vita teaser reel had some obvious Japanese titles in there. But combine that with Microsoft's presentation and the unexpectedly action-packed lineups from EA and Ubisoft, Japan had a surprisingly dim presence. Nintendo, ever the reliable entity, had plenty of Japan-borne stuff to show, including the Wii U and some choice upcoming 3DS games. But the most Japanese things about E3 were the game consoles. PS3, PS Vita, Wii U, 3DS -- all meticulously designed and presented to the world by Japanese companies, if not literally Japanese people holding them in their hands onstage.

Despite being in Los Angeles, E3 is typically seen as an international show for the industry. It's where Nintendo has announced their new systems ever since the Nintendo DS; where companies like Ubisoft can show off surprises like ; and where marginalized European PC game developers can try and get some eyes on their product. It's pretty cool that way. Some surprises from Japan are left over for the Tokyo Game Show later in the year, but it's during E3 when people really pay attention. So what happened, Japanese Game Industry?

People may answer that it's the economy's fault, or more recently the Tohoku earthquake, but I think it's more complicated than that. Others may attribute it to the general, undeniable decline of Japan's game industry, where creativity seems to be faltering in favor of pandering. In some respects, they're right; Japanese games aren't as big in scale, mindshare or ideas as they used to be. But even among the biggest troubles in their industry, Japan still has big games worth caring about, and you'd expect more than a few to show up at E3.

Besides maybe (which wasn't a brand-new appearance anyway), the highest-profile Japanese game at E3 was . And, well, not everyone's going to be salivating over that one. Then again, you could convincingly argue for , and if you wanted to split hairs, you could also name Konami's HD port collections... except those aren't being handled in Japan, and they're still old games. Even the makers of FFXIII-2 recognized something was off. Koji Taguchi, a Square Enix executive, said on Twitter that "the decline in Japanese titles was almost humiliating." Taguchi was mainly referring to his own company, and how it saved face by having strong titles from its European arm, but he wouldn't be wrong if he was speaking generally.

I may have asked where all the Japanese games went, but I also considered that acting binary about this might not be the progressive thing to do. As Japanese developers try harder to be Western or otherwise "international," there are companies outside Japan taking on previously-Japanese franchises. is made in Canada, as is . Capcom's Devil May Cry reboot () is made far away from Japan. And look at Konami's : wholly produced by Rebellion in the UK, but directed by Shinta Nojiri, the lone Japanese member, who had experience with the series.