Last fall I noted Apple's intent to open the iTunes Music Store in Japan by March of this year, with a starting catalog of 100,000 songs, weighted heavily to local material. No launch yet. A reader (thanks, David) asked for an update now that March has passed. I can find nothing on this subject except for reports, also dating from last fall, that Apple was having trouble negotiating with Japanese record labels. The issues were price and DRM; the labels (surprise!) wanted higher prices and stricter copy-protection than Apple did. CD-burning is not an accepted practice in existing online services in Japan, so Apple's lenience on that point put the label execs' panties in a bunch. No more recent word on those negotiations.
