Nintendo’s Wii, the little gaming console that could, marches on triumphantly in Japan, its homeland.

According to a report issued by Enterbrain, a Japanese company that tracks gaming sales, Nintendo's Wii outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 by more than five to one in Japan in May.

Enterbrain noted that the Japanese had bought 251,794 Wii consoles last month, while Sony sold just 45,321 PS3s.

Since its November 2006 launch, Nintendo Wii outsold both its competitors every month, in US and Japan, excepting December when the title of best selling console in US was gained by Xbox360.

In total, Nintendo has sold about 2.49 million Wii consoles in Japan since it was launched last December, while Sony has sold 928,642 PS3s since it was introduced here last November.

Nintendo's success is based on its approach which emphasized fun games aimed at casual players who could control the action using an innovative motion-detection remote control unit.

In a analysis published in March this year some months ago the research company IDC has predicted that Nintendo's Wii will outship and outsell the 360 and PS3 in 2007 and 2008.

IDC said that Microsoft's Xbox 360 was the best selling current generation console for 2006 because it enjoyed a full year lead in the market. According to IDC’s study, called Worldwide Videogame Console Hardware and Software Forecast 2006-2011: Ready for a New Game, Nintendo is the only one of the three manufacturers working to grow its total accessible market for its hardware and software by broadening its audience beyond the traditional market.