Nintendo President Satoru Iwata addressed a host of investors in Japan yesterday, detailing his company's plans for the next few months, leading up to the end of Nintendo's fiscal year on March 31. If you'd like to see the conference in full, including video trailers of many new games, you can do so here. For the short version, read on.

The first half of Iwata's presentation was dedicated to Nintendo's plan of expanding the gaming population and its success in doing so with the Nintendo DS and Wii. Overall, Japanese hardware sales have increased five-fold since the launch of the Wii and PS3, and another 25% just this year alone. Thanks to spearheading that success, Nintendo now owns 64% of the total Japanese gaming market, up from 54% the year before.

Of the thirty top-selling games in Japan this year, twenty-one are for the Nintendo DS (seven in the top ten) and five are for the Wii (three in the top ten). Of the top games for Nintendo platforms, only one of them (Dragon Quest Monsters Joker from Square Enix, ranked seventh) is not published by Nintendo. Iwata commented that people seem to complain that only Nintendo's own games are at the top of the rankings, implying that third parties can't find success on its hardware platforms.

However, Nintendo presented data that showed that its position in the Japanese software market is shrinking. Last year, Nintendo's own DS games took 77.1% of the handheld market. This year, its handheld games only take up 50.3%, indicating that third parties are starting to get their fair share of the sales on the Nintendo DS. One of the main reasons for this trend was that companies were slow to jump on the Nintendo DS bandwagon, so the lion's share of sales went to Nintendo. However, after companies adjusted their output to keep pace with the sales trends of the DS, things balanced out. This phenomenon is currently happening with the Wii, Iwata said, and Nintendo expects the imbalance of first-to-third-party sales on the Wii to undergo the same equalization.

After presenting survey data demonstrating how the Wii and DS are expanding the age range of the gaming population, and how females now play games more than males, Iwata began to explain Nintendo's next step in expanding their user base. Nintendo understands that a lot of people see the Wii's success as a fad. However, Iwata and Nintendo have a plan to ensure that the Wii is not something that will just come and go.

Nintendo will be focusing on getting more Wiis connected to the Internet. Currently, 40% of Japanese Wii consoles have connected to the Internet, but Nintendo is not satisfied with that figure. The Japanese broadband availability rate is 50.9%, which is the number Nintendo is shooting for. There are two reasons why Nintendo says people aren't connecting their consoles: technological or psychological barriers, and the fact that the current lineup of software isn't sufficient enough for people to want to overcome those barriers.

To help with the first issue, Nintendo announced it would be partnering with Japanese telecom giant NTT to set up a telephone hotline specifically to assist people in setting up their Wiis for Internet use. The partnership will even go as far as making house calls to install new connections and provide the equipment necessary to get a Wii connected to the Internet.

Nintendo research has shown that Wii owners connected to the Internet are having more fun with their console than those that are not, which would explain why Nintendo is going to such great lengths to get people connected. After all, worldwide figures show that over 20 million Pokémon have been traded online via the Global Trading Center in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, and 7.8 million Virtual Console games have been purchased and downloaded. These actions would not be possible without easy access to the Internet.

To address the software issue, Iwata outlined Nintendo's plans for its new WiiWare service, scheduled to launch in Japan in March of next year. He explained that the advantages to developers were many, citing lower development costs, lower overhead, and lower pricing for consumers who don't need to spend $50 on a traditional boxed game not always knowing if they were getting $50 worth of content. WiiWare will offer a flexible, competitive pricing structure to help combat this.

Iwata then showed off some of the software that is in development. Among the games revealed were the Pokemon Ranch Channel, Dr. Mario's Virus Buster, and Minna de Puzzloop (Magnetica) from Nintendo; Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Young King and the Promised Land from Square Enix; Star Solider R from Hudson; and a handful of other WiiWare games. The Mii Contest and Nintendo for All channels were also announced and detailed. Both are set to hit Japan next month. (For more detailed coverage on the new WiiWare games and Wii Channels announced by Nintendo, click here.)

While talking about these new WiiWare games, Iwata stated that Nintendo did not create the Wii just to make mini-games and puzzle games. He demonstrated this by showing off a reel of some new games in development, including Mario Kart Wii. The video trailer showed Mario in a kart leaping off a half-pipe and rolling in the air, as well as him piloting a motorcycle. Capcom's Monster Hunter 3 was revealed to be a Wii exclusive--this is significant because the game was originally announced as a PlayStation 3 exclusive title. Iwata also touched on Wii Music, and showed the first video of it since the E3 2006 press conference. It included a four-player orchestra and a musical note chart above each performer. Wii Fit and the Wii Balance Board were shown off again and given a Japanese release date and price of Dec. 1 for 8800 yen.

That's the meat and potatoes of the conference. Check out all of our screenshot updates and more related news on our Nintendo Conference 2007 event page. A lot more information about upcoming Nintendo games is likely to come out of E For All next week, so expect even more news at that time.