My take on this whole thing is this:

I feel, with all honesty here, that Utada's In The Flesh tour only sold out because fans were buying the tickets. I've heard people both on here and other sites say they bought tickets for one or more shows. I think that since In The Flesh was a sold-out concert, no other people, such as those who randomly go to gigs to see a newer performer didn't get the chance to see her.
I'd say about 95% of the tickets sold for In The Flesh were by fans, and not others, which is why I see In The Flesh as a bit of a flop, because she couldn't draw in new audiences with fans buying all the tickets.
Not that I'm trying to be nasty in this comment, it's just how I see it.
And as someone stated earlier, yes, This Is the One was not as I expected it to be. It did try too hard to please the mainstream, but with the mainstream all about showing less clothing, and having less musical sense (Call me rude boy-boy, anyone?), Utada was never really going to succeed.
And no doubt, Utada is an extremely talented artist. She puts in so much effort into the songs she produces, and there's no doubt others aren't wowed by her. But this is how society sees it, if a singer isn't completely in the spotlight of the music industry, being pushed down people's throats, they will not get noticed, simple. And I feel that Utada really lacked in wanting to promote This Is the One, which is the reason I feel it was not a big of a success as it could have been. And people are less likely to listen to music they've not heard before, or are told about an unfamiliar artist, it's somple ignorance that's our own worst enemy here.
Sure, TItO isn't as in-depth or personal as some of her other albums, but the talent and dedication of time is definitely there, but Utada's lack of enthusiasm for wanting to actually break the market, and the awful time to fall ill just made it so that TItO wasn't a big success.

But all in all, Utada will definitely keep making music for Japan, I can see that very clearly, what with these rumours flying around she's been in the studio and whatnot, but I just wonder whether or not IDJ will see it fit to renew her contract. I wish they would, as new English songs would certainly raise both mine, and many of her English-speaking fans spirits to know she's not completely given up hope of one day receiving success for her remarkable, and one-in-a-million talent.