What they say on this subject doesn't mean much at this point anyways, but you're right that it's even worse when what they say is the contextual equivalent of "cheque's in the mail". It's gotten to a point where you almost think there's a hidden subtext, and if there is, he kinda gives the subtext away with how he starts the sentence.
It's not the Japanese market they care about, it's what the industry that traditionally serves that market has to offer their platform, nothing more or less than that. There's too much symbolic association with the region in the dedicated hardware market globally for many consumers for them to be able to say that the Japanese market is becoming more and more inconsequential to their business (never mind that they want to keep singing that tune so that Japanese publishers believe they're working to turn their situation around domestically), so they'll keep singing that tune to convince consumers who don't watch sales as diligently as we do to believe that nothing is wrong, while also trying their best to lock content down that keeps that symbolic association going and assuaging fears of a permanent collapse in the Japanese market amongst publishers.
All they've got is a confidence play to keep things as they are, getting free milk without buying the cow.
The thing I wonder is who, if anyone, on the SIE Japan/Asia side of things is actively talking to publishers/developers given the context of the situation. Like how do you as a guy local to the business not at some point go "yeah we're kind of in the dumpster sales-wise". The data's just too obvious to anyone actually there.
Just off the top of my head (on Twitter) I can think of:
Natsume Atarashi (PR Team at PlayStation Japan)
Ryoichi Hasegawa (Executive Producer at SIE Japan)
Nicolo Accordino (Producer for numerous Japanese XDEV and former Japan Studio titles)
Not exactly big names with interviews in Famitsu, but when you look at the sorts of things they're broadcasting it's almost always whatever is aligned with the "international" focus of PlayStation Studios as it currently exists rather than anything especially tailored to a Japanese audience.
Take this one from Hasegawa for example:
He's not hyper-active on Twitter (which is of course fine), but this project continues to sit rent-free in my mind as a massive own-goal on SIE's part. They obviously decided to do a more full-throated marketing campaign for this edition of MLB The Show, which is a fine idea, hell even a great one considering this was the year Pro Baseball Spirits didn't get a PlayStation release; only problem is they JUST RELEASED THE ENGLISH VERSION AS-IS, and despite the heavy promotion from Shohei Ohtani, not even the trailer got a proper Japanese version, instead just subtitling the English one.
Unsurprisingly, MLB The Show 22 did barely any numbers in Japan even though its (theoretical) main domestic competitor completely vacated the PlayStation market. It's just insane.
I won't go in on any other individual tweets just out of respect for these folks' accounts, but you can go look them up. If they're talking about Japanese-made games at all 9 out of 10 times it's like, an update for Gran Turismo 7 or some side-deal SIE is already pushing like the VR version of RE8. Just feels to me like something of a waste of local resources.