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This is in stark contrast to reports from earlier this year that the Japanese hate the iPhone.

This "hatred" was debunked shortly thereafter:

AppleInsider has posted a great article explaining that Wired's story about Japanese iPhone hate was completely false and has been edited at least twice. The comments in the article were recycled and taken out of context, with those interviewed blogging about the mistakes. The piece then goes on to analyze the iPhone's standing in Japan, as well as some of the major factors working for and against it. At last it points out that the Wall Street Journal tried the same myth of failure just after the phone's launch in Japan, recycled from a myth the year before, pushed by a research company with a possible anti-Apple agenda.

Kinda the point. The AI article treats it pretty realistically (if perhaps overly-hopeful) and in an actual, informed context, whereas the Wired article smacks of yellow journalism.

If Mr. Chen at Wired had actually used information and opinions from the reply sent to him by the guy he specifically asked "I was wondering if you could happened to know why the iPhone is failing there?" it would have been... you know... a decidedly different article. At the VERY least, a decidedly different quote. (Though I rather imagine he wouldn't have been mentioned at all, because his reply was in the opposing direction of the tale Chen wanted to tell.)

Read the first blog response link.

Essentially, the guy says he was taken out of context, but if you read the note he fired off to correct the error, he also goes on to explain that the iPhone is simply not selling well in Japan. He claims this is Softbank's marketing problem, but it points to a larger problem that the demand for the product has already been filled in the first few months after release.

Those who want it have it. Everyone else is indifferent.

Hi there anonymous coward ;-) I am not afraid to disclose my real identity. I am that Nobi Hayashi, that guy in person. And I DO have iPhone; actually, I even have the first generation iPhone and now I have three of them (excluding the one that was stolen in San Francisco on the show floor of MACWORLD EXPO in January). And I totally agree with you that carrying P905i isn't going to generate the same kind of enthusiasm. As a matter of fact, to me, those people who has P905i in that ugly champagne gold color look more 'lame' than carrying any other Japanese phones. And that phone is not my weapon of choice. My weapon of choice is iPhone. (And second weapon of choice is INFOBAR 2. I didn't even charge P905i and search for it for hours ). You might ask what's wrong. Well, what's wrong is the article quoted here. This author Brian Chen based the article from two years old interview and he added a few words I have never said to support the conclusion he wanted to write; he seem to hate Japan. http://torley.com/how-not-to-handle-blog-comments When I twitter about how I was misquoted, he modified the article and attributed the "iPhone =lame" quote to Daiji Hirata who also never said it; his filing another complaint to the article. Anyway, to read the full story, you have to come to my blog: http://blog.nobi.cc/2009/02/my-view-of-how-iphone-is-doing-in-japan-by-nobi-nobuyuki-hayashi.html

HI I am Nobuyuki Hayashi (aka Nobi) referred in this article. I have to point out you are using the quote I have never mentioned. Perhaps, Brian, the author of Wired article thought I would never read his article but I did. After I blamed him for this, he redirected that "iPhone = lame" quote to Daiji Hirata which made him upset because he never said that either. :-( Anyway, to see how I really think iPhone is doing, read the post on my blog: http://blog.nobi.cc/ If you want to keep arguing the delusion about Japan, you can stay here. If you want to do a serious discussion, please come to my blog or quote from my blog and forget about that "iPhone look lame in Japan"; it's not just me and Daiji but I haven't seen one person in Japan who would say iPhone looks lame. And I have been lecturing how big a threat iPhone is to the Japanese handset manufacturers almost 4-5 times a month since Jan. 2008; I have shown the device to 12 months x 4 lectures x 150 or so people + many parties (I had one big iPhone party yesterday celebrating the launch of Evangelion application for iPhone and I will have another one tonight with 100+ people in Mita, Tokyo ).

According to the article Nobi Hayashi is "a journalist and author of Steve Jobs: The Greatest Creative Director." He also doesn't say the iPhone is lame in the article.

From his recent blog post he's upset about this quote since it is out of date and he is a big iPhone fan, but has mentions problems with both Apple and Softbank.

In my experience, most Japanese people I've shown the iPhone to are impressed by the user interface, but I believe Apple and Softbank should to more to meet the needs of the local market. Also the data pricing plan is crazy and the recent price change doesn't affect it.

What did Nobuyuki Hayashi really say before he was so badly misquoted by Brian Chen?
Read his blog: (hint his real cellphone of choice is . . . an iPhone!?!!):
http://blog.nobi.cc/2009/02/my-view-of-how-iphone-is-doing-in-japan-by-nobi-nobuyuki-hayashi.html

My cellular weapon of choice, of course is an iPhone and my cellular weapon of choice to the foreigners is INFOBAR2 and I don't even dare to charge my P905i these days.

This from the guy misquoted in both the article and summary. The author actually asked for his opinion, but then took something from an old interview.

It seems Chen used an old article to quote Hayashi thusly, "Hayashi's cellular weapon of choice? A Panasonic P905i, a fancy cellphone that doubles as a 3-inch TV. It also features 3-G, GPS, a 5.1-megapixel camera and motion sensors for Wii-style games."

The none-too-happy Hayashi reports, "My cellular weapon of choice, of course is an iPhone... I can't agree with what Brian's article had to say and here is how I view the iPhone market in Japan."
http://blog.nobi.cc/2009/02/my-view-of-how-iphone-is-doing-in-japan-by-nobi-nobuyuki-hayashi.html/

iPhone Mattters today also has a related report, "The Japanese hate the iPhone so much they start four iPhone magazines."
http://www.iphonematters.com/article/the_japanese_hate_the_iphone_so_much_they_start_four_iphone_magazines_173/#When:12:42:00Z/