They love Walkmans in Japan. So much so that Sony’s Walkman line has temporarily passed the iPod for sales in Japan again, according to researchers at BCN. Players like the S640 helped Sony slide past in August with 47.8 percent of sales where Apple dropped to 44 percent. The Walkman overtook the iPod briefly a year ago, but these new figures mark the first time that Sony managed to hold an overall lead for the month.

The iPod nano 8GB and 16GB were still the top sellers, but it was the variety of Sony players that ultimately overwhelmed their numbers.

Part of this switch is due to Apples update schedule. It regularly updates iPods in September, so many were likely holding off for the new iPod lineup while Sony was still in mid-cycle.

[ipodnn]