Not sure about the OP question, but my wife is Japanese and:
1. The raised rounded cheeks would require the foam to be cut to properly fit. 2. The housing around the nose can be a huge light bleed if you are in a well lit room. (I can actually look through it to see her eyes.
This will not be true for everyone there, but the mechanical design is not optimal. As far as popularity. In certain circles it is already receiving demos. I have seen some classic stuff like that CG pop singer and Macross flight sim. Not sure just HOW popular it is but i am guessing that quite a few people in Akihabara know about it! Outside of that, i dunno. PCs are not really as big a thing there as consoles.
I've been in Japan for years now, and work directly with people in media/gaming/education industries.
People had heard of it, but very few people knew about it in detail (even people on the "cutting edge"), and there was serious scepticism (understandably looking at VR history here). It wasn't easy convincing supervisors that it was something they should look into, and eventually I just bought a Rift myself.
Since getting one though, I've had numerous Japanese researchers/practitioners visit me. These people are in areas like media tech, cognitive psych, sociology, gamification, and game design. All of them have been absolutely blown away by the potential, and constantly send people my way to try it out.
It's definitely turning into a hot topic where I am based, and the ideas now being thrown around for it are amazing! I'd say give it until the end of the year, and there will be very interesting things released from Japan using the Rift. 😉
Fuck yeah Macross! Also, watch out Sybo, the PC police will take you to Mildlyoffensivetraz. It sounds like the consumer Rift will need to have more padding, and make it more flexible so it can cup around different face shapes.
