Role-playing games, probably the most popular genre in Japan, have a moderate following in the United States. Americans prefer action-packed, top-down view style RPGs like "Baldur's Gate" and "Diablo" to traditional "Final Fantasy" RPGs.
Enix's "Dragon Quest VII," the biggest-selling PlayStation game of all time in Japan, barely made a dent in the American market.
Every market seems to have at least one genre of its own. Car "kombat" games do better in America than anywhere else. I use a "k" for combat because of "Mortal Kombat," the American-made fighting game that defined violence in video games.