Well, I told ya so. The iPhone isn’t doing so well in Japan, and has an uphill climb ahead of it. As reported in a poll conducted by the Nikkei Business, 59% of respondents had “no intention to buy”, and another 26% had “no interest.” That left 2.5% who intend to buy, and another 13% who may think about it.
Apple just doesn’t have the juice in Tokyo– almost everything there is either clearly wabi-sabi and traditional, or slick-plastic-wonderland-emotive. This goes for cars, buildings, magazines, shows, and even the girls in Harajuku. The iPhone’s sex appeal that is so compelling to clunky plaid-shirted Americans is just another plastometallic toy to the Japanese. Even at that, the iPhone comes up short in functionality– no terrestrial TV, poor kanji anticipation, and an underdeveloped app market. Japan, like Europe, has fierce competition amongst calling plans and contracts; they don’t have the Faustian vendor plans like in the United States, so iPhone’s lock in with Softbank is a big turn off.
I don’t have an iPhone. I think I want one, but at the same time, I find myself using a cellphone less and less.
Meh.
(thanks to Gen Kanai and Joi Ito for the photo)
I promise I'm relevant 
I live in Osaka Japan and I can confirm that the I phone really has not picked up here in general.
Mostly people here have other great phones that they are used to using. Also Japanese don’t really need a big gadget like the I phone in my opinion.
It is huge back home but not really yet here. Will be cool to see what happens.
Chris
[...] With these, Softbank can go back to the market-share giveaways that made them famous. Earlier, I didn’t see the iPhone taking off so strongly inside the Empire. Now– maybe we’ve got a real [...]
[...] Peter. Having said that, however, I have noticed many many more iPhones on the street than when I looked two years ago. Moreover, the Docomo (a carrier) Android advertising is in full court press, invoking the Sith [...]