It's not really a Japan thing (Score 1)

Outside of North America, the iPhone and other popular phones in North America (like Black Berry, G1, Windows Mobile phones, etc) are just another phone. People prefer other phones. In countries that use GSM, Nokia is still the king. In places, like countries like Japan and South Korea, the reason why the iPhone is not popular there is that the dominant cellphone network standard in use is not compatible with the iPhone (which uses GSM).