Japanese autists have found a more diverse range of interests than Sonic the Hedgehog. They're particularly fond of trains.

sonic is fucking lame and has a confusing continuity

Seiyuu do a lot of roles, including dead on arrival gacha and LN commercials. Sega was known in Japan as the arcade giant, with locations everywhere and cutting edge technology powering Virtua Fighter's incredible 3D animations. Sonic was just a series to them, rather than the spearhead of their marketing like in America.

>>284665613
Because Sonic games was mostly a console thing, and the Mega Drive was never particularly popular in Japan, so he never really caught on with any audience. There wasn't anything like the Sonic cartoons to sell non-gaming kids on him either.