Danbo links to an MM Research Institute study on computer marketshare in Japan for FY2008. Apple’s share of the personal computer market in Japan increased to 2.9%, ranking Apple in tenth place. Last year Apple was ninth place with 2.8%. The big story is netbooks, which saw a whopping 13.2% increase in their marketshare. Asus came from behind and sold more computers in Japan than Apple did in 2008.

Relative to other countries, Apple’s marketshare is small. Apple is said to have 8% of the US market, and recently broke into the top 5 in the UK marketshare (4.8% of the market). The difference is that in other countries the computer industry is depressed (5.15% decrease overall last quarter in the UK) but Japan saw an increase in computer sales last year. Unlike other countries, Apple doesn’t seem to be gaining by much in Japan.

Nevertheless, with the severely weakened trade deficit and slow domestic economy, I expect FY2009 to be much worse all around. This is despite the high value of the yen, which foreign manufacturers such as Apple and HP are taking advantage of.