July 3 - 1:35pm EDT   The iPhone is currently the best-selling smartphone in Japan, at least at retail, according to a recent survey. Gathered by research firm BCN, data from 2,300 stores shows the 8GB iPhone 3G as the most popular smartphone, followed by its 16GB sibling. Ranking third in the survey is the NTT DoCoMo Aquos SH-04A, designed by Sharp; RIM's BlackBerry Bold ranks sixth, and a full four slots in the list are occupied by devices from HTC. [full story]

June 25 - 3:40pm EDT   Japanese shoppers are already in line to buy the iPhone 3G S, which goes on sale with Softbank at 7AM local time on Friday, equivalent to 6PM Eastern on Thursday. Lines are smaller than those for the iPhone 3G launch, according to IDG, at present closer to 100 people at Softbank's flagship Omotesando store. When reservations opened for the 3G S last week, approximately 200 people arrived at the Omotesando location. Online preorders have not been allowed with Japanese iPhones. [full story]

June 18 - 4:00pm EDT   Japanese carrier Softbank today opened up reservations for the iPhone 3GS, allowing people to pre-order the device. As neither Apple nor Softbank have allowed online pre-orders in the country, lineups formed outside of Softbank retail stores, with as many as 200 people showing up at the flagship outlet by 1AM. Though crowds at the outlet disappeared towards the afternoon, they are said to have grown again in the evening. [full story]

May 14 - 1:50pm EDT   Sony today reported its first annual loss in some 14 years, according to the New York Times. During its most recent fiscal year, the company is said to have lost 98.9 billion yen; for the fiscal year ending in March 2010, the company is expecting to record a net loss of 120 billion yen, or $1.26 billion US. The company is only expected to avoid a 150 billion yen loss in part because of newly-favorable Japanese taxes. [full story]

December 10 - 11:10am EST   Demand for the iPhone remains fairly good, according to Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. Probing of distribution and supply chain checks is said to show that iPhone demand is "healthy" in Europe, the US and most of the Asia-Pacific region, although Japan's market is believed to have mixed trends. Wu expects that Apple will ship approximately 6 million phones in the December quarter, a figure close to 10 percent below estimated build numbers. Investors are generally predicting shipments anywhere between 5 and 7 million, though the majority are said to be leaning towards 6 to 6.5 million. [full story]

November 4 - 5:00pm EST   Japan is by far the world's most dense population of iTunes users, a new comScore study suggests. The group claims that some 13.6 million people -- or 23.7 percent of Japan's entire Internet audience -- accessed iTunes at some point during the month of August. The country ranks higher in terms of iTunes penetration than even the US, where only 19.6 percent used the software in August, and the second-place United Kingdom, which scored 23.4 percent. The worldwide percentage was just 11.2 percent. [full story]

September 18 - 12:55am EDT   Pioneer recently announced it would start selling its LCDs in North America and Asia during the first half of 2009, after unveiling the 32- and 37-inch models in Europe last month. CE Pro reveals that Pioneer will follow up the North American and Asian releases with Japan in 2010, opting to focus mostly on small- and medium-sized LCDs for the Japanese. Pioneer also said it would offer a high-end range of LCDs, manufactured with Sharp LCD panels. [full story]

August 21 - 3:30pm EDT   I-O Data has announced that it will be releasing a device called the MacTV before the end of this year. The MacTV is a small, digital USB tuner, designed to fit in with the current Mac line of products, and is currently only clad in white. It has three connections: a USB port, an antenna input and a B-CAS card slot, the last of which is required to decode digital broadcasts in Japan. The menu interface of the software is a translucent cube, which can be controlled via an Apple Remote and rotates, spins or rolls when shifting from menu to menu. [full story]

August 19 - 4:25pm EDT   After recently discovering the sizzling first generation iPod nanos were not an isolated incident, Apple is recognizing the issue and offering to replace the faulty units. Three reports out of Japan showed several incidents of the player smoking or sparking, which also saw melted face plastics and bent back plates. In response to the claims, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry is examining three cases in which the devices caused burns to their owners. [full story]

August 19 - 10:25am EDT   The Japanese government has taken a serious interest in iPod nano defects following three separate fires this year, the Wall Street Journal reports. Hiroyuki Yoshitsune, an official from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, says that a pair of Nanos recently overheated in Tokyo, scorching a straw mat in one case and paper in a second. These incidents surround another from March, in which sparks were caught erupting from a Nano. [full story]

August 15 - 9:35am EDT   The new-found popularity of the iPhone in Japan is as much a failure of local industry as it is an advancement by Apple, a former NTT DoCoMo executive claims. Tsuyoshi Natsuno, who lead the carrier's i-mode division, describes the Japanese cellular industry as having fallen into a "collegial system," where phones are designed explicitly according to specifications outlined by carriers. The phones in fact have no existence outside of their carriers, a situation which Natsuno believes to offer no incentive for driving technology forward. [full story]

July 9 - 3:05am EDT   While the first iPhone 3G lineup began at Apple's flagship NYC store, people are already lining up in Japan at the Softbank flagship store in “Tokyo’s Fifth Avenue”, Omotesandou street where the iPhone will be "available extra-early in this particular store on July 11th, 7 am (July 10th, 6pm EST)," CrunchGear notes. "And the man you can see in the video, Hiroyuki Sano, will be the first person in Asia to lay his hands on the 3G iPhone (assuming stores in Hong Kong will open later in the day). I shot the video and the pictures just now, in the middle of the night (July 8th, 2pm EST). This means Hiroyuki and the 15 people waiting with him must suffer for another 52 hours ... [full story]

July 8 - 10:05am EDT   Japan's Softbank has announced launch-day plans for the country's first iPhone, according to IDG News. The carrier says that it will be one of the first in the world to sell the iPhone 3G, opening the doors of its Harajuku store at 7AM Friday JST, a time equivalent to 10PM Thursday in GMT, or 2PM Thursday in PST. The only country to launch before Japan should be New Zealand, where the 3G is being carried by Vodafone. [full story]

July 7 - 10:30am EDT   In the face of reports suggesting ambivalence to the iPhone 3G in the Japanese market, Kakaku.com has released survey results indicating that these accounts may be significantly off the mark. The Japanese iPhone is currently set to be carried exclusively by Softbank on July 11th; in the Kakaku survey, early 8,000 people (90 percent male) were questioned in June through a price comparison portal for electronics. Extrapolating from the respondents' answers, Kakaku says that over 50 percent "will definitely purchase one," or at least intend to. Of this group, over 45 percent are not current Softbank subscribers. [full story]

June 23 - 9:20am EDT   Japanese carrier Softbank has announced its planned prices for the iPhone 3G, Reuters writes. Launching with the initial wave of 22 countries on July 11th, Softbank will sell the 8GB iPhone for 23,040 yen, or approximately $215; the 16GB iPhone should cost 34,560 yen ($322). It is expecting most subscribers to sign up for a 7,280 yen ($68) per month plan, which will guarantee unlimited data use and free calls to other Softbank users. [full story]