Nobi Hayashi, the main source of Brian X Chen’s disappointing article about Japanese hatred for the iPhone, has come forward in a lengthy denial where he claims his comments were taken out of context. The article provides an interesting look into the mobile culture of Japan. Hayashi makes a great point about the iPhone’s performance here:

… the total unit shipment of all operators combined went down for 18.7% … to 42 million units which makes iPhone almost has the 1% share; In January 2007, Steve Jobs said he will have 1% share of the worldwide market. Well, in Japan, too. They got that number of share in this very competitive market.

The article continues with other examples of media mistreatment of the iPhone and is worth the read. Japanese “hate” for iPhone all a big mistake

h/t to @ourmanintokyo