Sonic being unpopular in Japan is a pretty funny pub-trivia fact that is interesting to analyse and puts a lot of stuff into perspective (while making others stranger), but I don't really get why non-Japanese Sonic fans really care about it on an emotional level. You're in one of the countries where Sonic is popular, you probably already have Sonic fan friends from the countries where Sonic is popular (most countries with common access of video games), it doesn't really effect you.
All of the above"