Entertainment gadget maker, Apple, is having a crack at a market which has largely ignored its fairly crass American smugness. The Japanese have largely treated Apple much in the same way as it has Microsoft, with aloof disdain for foreign barbarians who know nothing about electronics.

While European phone companies were falling all over themselves to sign up for the sole distribution rights for the iPhone, Japanese companies were less keen. Now, according to Information Week Softbank, the No. 3 wireless provider in Japan has agreed to offer the Apple iPhone.

Amusingly, it has announced what some European telcos would regard as their holy grail, as if Apple was asking it to flog a rabid incontinent rat. A 'press release' was released that said basically,  "Softbank Mobile today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Japan later this year," and that was it.

More here.