Favorite Japanese games

Rez: Awesome abstract Panzer Dragoon style shooter.
Vib Ribbon: Quirky game based on audio CDs.  Very limited english release. 
Sin and Punishment: One of the best games for the N64, by Treasure.  Voice acting was entirely in English, it's a shame it never made it over.
Rakugaki Showtime: A chaotic mix of Super Dodgeball and Smash Bros with quirky "sketch" graphics, this multiplayer beatemup is the inspiration for Treasure's upcoming Tiny Toons game.
Radiant Silvergun: Some have called it the greatest shooter ever made.
Beatmania: Simplistic yet so awesome.  DDR for people who don't need to look gay.
Bust a Move: Called Bust a Groove in the US, I prefer the Japanese songs
Super Galdelic Hour: A fanservice "variety hour" show, consists of minigames to unlock different costumes for four different girls.  By Enix.
Bahamut Lagoon:  If you think FF6 had some of the best RPG graphics on the SNES, this game tops it.
Seiken Densetsu 3:  Awesome, challenging, and awesome.  Far superior to Secret of Mana.
Pachinko Sexy Reaction:  Self explanatory.
Parodious:  Four games.  All awesome.
Sakura Taisen: Why?  Why are you not here already?

This is unforgivable.  I hate this country.

Super Robot Wars series: Awesome animation and gameplay with Gundam series, Macross, Evangelion, Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and a bunch of other mecha fighting in SRPG style...not to mention inter-series interaction and comedy

Shin Megami Tensei (SNES): Wonderful and addictive monster-recruiting RPG without the asininity of Pokémon and its ilk.
Romancing SaGa series: An RPG for the truly masochistic.  These games will hand you your ass so frequently that you'll consider installing a zipper for easy removal and reattachment.

It's inevitable that some great games will not be released outside of the country of origin. Bad timing or overall quirkiness is usually cited for the reason it wasn't brought over.

 Emulation is a solution, almost the only solution, as classic Japanese titles become rarer and rarer. For the CD eras, we'll have ISOs for emulation. Don't expect it to be ignored by the legal staff of the console publishers for quite a few years, though.

If this is a "bitch about games that never came out in the US" topic, what's Rez doing there?

Those arent't all only Japanese games, Rez, Vib Ribbon and some of the Parodius games came to Europe.

Hell, Rez came to the US, on the PS2. But yes, Rez (DC and PS2), Vib Ribbon, a PS1 Beatmania, Parodius (GB, NES, SNES) and Parodius Deluxe Pack (Saturn, PSX) were all released in Europe.

GEKISHA BOY 2, aka Gekibo 2, aka Photoboy 2, aka Polaroid Pete. It was just about to be released in Europe when the publisher disappeared off the face of the earth :/

日本語でも書けるん？

Shiritsu Justice Gakuen 2 (PSX). If only they could make Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki longer... :\

Favorite Japanese games

Japanese games I like: ●●●●●●●●●○
Japanese games companies release in gaijin countries: ●●○○○○○○○○
Business opportunities lost: ●●●●●●●●○○
Overal IQ of videogame companies: Japanese games I like: ○○○○○○○○○○

>>11 is not the entire western videogame market.

I'd love to see a PS2 compilation of the Parodius series released in Europe, but that's just me and maybe a hundred other people who would actually give a damn - not nearly enough for Konami to go ahead with it.

You may not like it, but game publishers are businesses, and as such they tend to care more about making money than releasing stuff >>1-12 really want to play.