Following the news that in February's NPD hardware sales numbers the Nintendo DS surprised everyone by nearly doubling its sales numbers, passing 500,000 units sold and getting the first spot, it seems that in Japan too the Nintendo handheld is performing admirably and is posting top sales numbers.

A market research firm that specializes in watching the console sales numbers has just offered an insight into the way sales performed for the week that ended on March 23. It was a week when Japan celebrated a national holiday for the vernal equinox, which means that sales went up because many people chose games related gifts.

The DS is on top in the hardware sales competition in Japan, managing to push more that 65,000 units that week, seeing a rise in sales of more than 12,000 units. Its closest rival was also a Nintendo product, the Wii, which managed to attract around 62,000 buyers with its innovative control scheme and family orientation. The PlayStation Portable took third spot with a little over 59,000 units sold during the period. Remarkably, the Xbox 360 numbers managed to fall even more, with just 1,400 consoles sold in one week.

On the software side, the best selling game in Japan was dominated by a Pokemon-based title, named Pokemon Raider, a game that was launched during the holiday week and managed to push out some half a million units. The second highest new entry of the week is Hudson's Deca Sports for the Wii, whose similarity to Wii Sports has helped it gain more than 65,000 in unit sales. At number three, the next highest new entry is giant robot simulator Armored Core: For Answer on the PlayStation 3 with 54,000 unit sales. An Xbox 360 version is also in the charts at number thirteen.

Will the Nintendo DS manage to keep its dominant position in the North American market when the March NPD numbers will hit, somewhere in the next few days? We'll keep you posted.