Reports indicate that the Cupertino, California-based computer giant is trying to enrich its Japanese vocabulary with words like “arigato” or “konichiwa”, in the perspective of a potential launch there for the iPhone.

Already a massive hit in the US and recently launched on the European continent, “iPhone” is the word of the day among Japanese carriers, among which NTT DoCoMo and Softbank (first and third largest mobile operator respectively) seem to mutter it better than others.

Rumor has it that Steve Jobs met DoCoMo President Masao Nakamura in San Francisco to discuss details about a potential partnership between the two behemoths. NTT is the largest mobile operator in Japan, controlling half of the market, and a deal with Apple seems logical, considering the latter’s recent history. In all territories where the iPhone was launched, Apple carefully picked the most reliable carriers, which are actually the leaders of the market in their respective countries (AT&T in the US, Orange in France, Deutsche Telekom in Germany).

"The negotiations are not going smoothly, as Apple's conditions are extremely hard to meet," one source told Reuters. "The ball is in Apple's court right now."

However, Steve Jobs can play the ball how he pleases, considering that Softbank (which acquired the Japanese Vodafone subsidiary in 2006) is also among the fish in the pond. The only difficulty standing between the iPhone and 100+ million eager Japanese customers is Apple’s push for revenue sharing.

Technicalities are also involved: Japan is one of the countries with the most advanced 3G networks in the world, but the current iPhone doesn’t work with this type of high-speed connection. Instead, it uses the slower (and more “battery-friendly”) GPRS/EDGE connectivity and Wi-Fi, because 3G chips would simply drain the energy in very little time. And considering that the iPhone is not one, but three devices in a single casing (a phone, an iPod and an Internet communication device), it would simply be suicidal for Apple to include such chips.

All hope is not lost though. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson confirmed at a meeting in California that a 3G iPhone would appear in 2008.