Didn't Nokia pull out of Japanese market except for Vertu luxury brand.


http://www.reuters.com/article/techn...4AQ1K620081127

Nokia to cease sales in Japan
Thu Nov 27, 2008

Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said on Thursday it will stop selling mobile phones in Japan

Yes Rauha you're right - they did.
It must be a typo, there is no flagship store in Tokyo, only Vertu store in Ginza.

Isn't it pretty hard to just get a SIM in Japan, without a phone? I'm studying abroad in Tokyo next year, and my N900 is going with me, even if I can only use it with Skype+Wifi to call home, but it would be AWESOME if I could use it for voice there, too, especially with Google Voice..

google voice and gizm account on wifi would be your best bet even if it wouldnot have voice for you wouldnt it?

Yeah, probably. I guess I'm also thinking about the easy way for people to be able to call me, too. The friends I already have in Japan, I mean.

Japan is saturated with cell phones, Nokia had to pull out.
I'm glad they did because for me it signaled that they would finally stop having that Japan technology Market influence as a general guide towards what they should try to do with their next models and instead they have had to innovate through the Nokia tablet product relying on all their own people and supporters from around the world, i.e., they stop being fixated on trying to compete in the Japan market and opened their eyes to a wider audience.
But i love Japan even though I've never been there I see so many pretty Japanese girls and the movies are pretty good and the words are easy to pronounce.

...but definitely not so easy to write. I've been speaking the language for almost 10 years and I still study Kanji

Yes, it's pretty hard. Some pushy people have apparently been able to get Softbank SIMs without a phone. However this recently may have been stopped again.

A glimmer of hope on the horizon is the fact that in 2010 Japanese law will require carriers to provide APN information to allow third party (or other carriers') phones on the network. It is possible that as a side effect, SIM cards (without phones) may become more widely available, due to the increasing number of people who just want to connect to a carrier's network without buying a phone from that carrier.

For prepaid data-only SIMs, it is already possible to get them without a contract (e.g. B-Mobile).

For prepaid voice, currently AFAIK Softbank is the only carrier that is taking new customers. Even if they force you to buy a handset, the cheap ones run around 7000 yen or so, so it's not that expensive - compared to the price of the N900, anyway.

So, anyone in Japan buying the N900? If so, from where?

Here's one place: expansys.jp.

Are there other places to buy or other options?

Japan uses USIM mostly, apparently Japanese handsets are way more advance than the N900
A few years ago their handsets were able to watch broadcast TV, now making cashless payment for public transport with their handset is quite normal