We can double the number of developers here in the US right now... problem is half of them are going to f'in horrible at it. The total number doesn't matter but the quality does.

I was in Japan in September as well this year. They did have the iPhone as you pointed out, but I think most importantly is that every place that was selling was giving it away for free (0 Yen). That price was there for the full time I was there. I don't know if the carriers were fully subsiding the phone or if Apple was cutting prices because they were having a difficult time selling it.