An advertising executive I know enjoys reading train schedules. He calls it his TV substitute and says it relaxes him. He likes, he says, to imagine the towns the trains pass through, what the countryside is like and how it would feel to be a passenger (or a hobo) on those trains. "Never have trouble sleeping if I have a train schedule," he laughs.

Sounds like a waste of time to me. There are, after all, so many more interesting things to read. Like, for example, motorcycle sales statistics. The Nirinsha Shinbun, Japan's motorcycle industry newspaper, is filled with just such statistics. Among a wealth of fascinating information, in there you will find "The Top 40," a monthly ranking of models sold. Included are total sales and comparisons with the previous month, as well as comparisons for the same month in the previous year. Also listed are the market shares (by percentage) of each major manufacturer and how those percentiles changed over the previous month, and for the same month of the previous year. Riveting stuff!

So, as you can imagine, it was with no small amount of anticipation that I awaited the June 18th issue. For in there would be listed the nationwide sales statistics for the month of March - March being the month that the new Ninja ZX-10R went on sale. Would it outsell the incredible R1? How would it fare against the CBR1000RR and big Gixer? And where would the ZX-6R, R6 and Suzuki's new 600 fit into the mix?

Riding home from Yotsuya on the Marunouchi Line with the paper in my bag - I had snagged it out of the pile of incoming afternoon mail in the foyer, before the girls could bring it upstairs - I was tempted, like a child with a piece of candy, to devour it right there, standing up in the crowd of sweating commuters. But, as they say in Japan: Patience is bitter but its fruit is sweet. So, I waited.

Finally, late that evening, over a small glass of chilled sake (the good stuff, made from brown rice), I indulged. The top selling machine in the 400cc and over class was Honda's CB400SF, a Naked sports bike of which 475 examples were sold. No. 2 was....oh, there must be a misprint. It can't be. The Yamaha SR400!? This is the same air-cooled SOHC single first sold in the US more than a decade ago as the SR500. The second best selling bike in the most technologically advanced nation in Asia (in the world?) Is the SR400? Number three is the Yamaha Drag Star, a 400cc air-cooled V-Twin cruiser. In fact, the SR and other air-cooled singles have been runaway top sellers for the past ten years. What's going on here?

If you look around you on the streets of the city that author William Gibson called "The world's default setting for the future," what do you see? You certainly see very few of the supersport bikes about which the Western moto-press make such a fuss. What you do see are SR400/500s in all their permutations, 250cc dirt bikes tricked out with K&N air filters and Renthal bars. Scooters. Lots of big scooters fitted with pull-back aftermarket bars and Supertrapp exhaust systems. Motard bikes, but not as many as you would expect. And of course, screaming hordes of little scooters, step-through Honda 90 delivery bikes (yep, they're still here) and assorted other mongrels fit only for domestic consumption. In fact, the Japanese manufacturers do not even sell their supersport bikes in Japan!

That's right, the only way a hot-blooded Japanese squid can get his mitts on one of these rice-rockets is to buy it from a dealer who has re-imported the machine into Japan. In a shocking disregard for irony, the R1, ZX-10R and other ultra-bikes are import models in their country of origin.

The reasons for this are too arcane for us to delve into here, but suffice it to say that they have to do with horsepower and speed limits, and vehicle regulations, all of which are controlled by a massive bureaucracy so Kafkaesque in its complexity that even the Japanese are at a loss as to how to free themselves from it. This is what Western economists and politicians are talking about when they complain of "structural impediments." In plain language, nonsensical ways of doing things.

But, I digress. How did the new 10R fare in Japan's Top 40? The Green Meanie came in at No. 12 (97 units), four places behind Harley's Sportster 1200 Road Star, which sold 124 units in March. Yamaha's R1 finished a lowly 34th, at 42 units.

Six Harleys finished in the Top 40, making Harley the top selling big-bike in Japan, again.

What, one wonders, does it portend when the youth of the world's most technologically advanced nation choose to ride old-fashioned air-cooled singles, and the old guys are riding old-fashioned air-cooled V-Twins? And is all this in some way related to Japan's falling birthrate? Or, is this a subtle anti-establishment movement reminiscent of America in the 60's? But, I'll have to continue this later, as I've suddenly become so very sleepy ...

Nick Voge lives off-shore and writes an occasional column for SuperBikePlanet.com