The below graphs were made from usage statistics taken from two websites about video games. The first site, Metroid 2002, specializes in information about the Metroid series of games. The second, The Protoman Homepage, offers music and video from the Mega Man series of games.
Japanese visitors caused about 30% of the hits to The Protoman Homepage in December of 2003, while Japanese visitors caused less than 2% of the hits to Metroid 2002 in the same month.
While there is something to be said for the difference in content between the sites (Metroid 2002 offers information on actually playing Metroid games, while The Protoman Homepage offers only content taken from Mega Man games), I feel that a website's popularity in a given country will be directly proportional to the popularity of the game on which it is based in said country. I base this on anecdotal evidence about the lingering inefficacy of search engines (searching for game help on a particular level in a Mega Man game and receiving that level's music on The Protoman Homepage as a result, for example).
20040213Nathan Jahnke