iPhone coming to Japan?

Word has it that the iPhone will be making its way across the Pacific and into Japan sometime at the end of next year. Apparently, this was leaked by an Apple employee, lending some weight to all the whispers that we hear around. Will the iPhone do as well in Japan as the iPod? There’ll be some work to be done when it comes to tweaking the user interface, especially when composing messages since Japanese characters aren’t as simple as hacking it out on a virtual QWERTY keyboard. Not to mention the relative antiquated hardware that is the iPhone when compared to the uber-advanced cellphones in Japan. Apple sure has a whole lot of work to do beforehand if this (rumor) is true.