It'll be nice to finally start using iTMS here in Japan.

100K? Is that a typo? Heck, the new U2 box set contains that much music!

100K isn't a typo. The article on Nikkei Net says "over 100,000 songs."

I suspect that this may be because the Japanese iTunes Music Store won't have non-Japanese songs. The Japanese record companies already have plenty of trouble on their hands because the prices of imports are significantly cheaper than Japanese records. For example, the Japanese version of U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" is priced 2,548 yen at amazon.co.jp. The U.S. import is priced 1,531 yen and is sold for 1,420 yen (a 7% discount). The Japanese record companies are trying to get people to buy the Japanese versions, typically by including bonus tracks, Japanese translations of the lyrics, and Japanese liner notes. As you can probably imaagine, many listeners don't want to pay an extra 1,000 yen (roughly 10 $) for one extra song and the Japanese booklet.
This makes me suspect that the Japanese record companies may have said "we want the iTunes Music Store, but only if all the songs are Japanese." If this is true, it would suck for me (because I don't listen to many Japanese artists), but it's better than nothing. The best development that occured recently is that some Japanese record companies are saying they may get rid of CCCDs (drm'ed "Copy Control CD's," which actually aren't audio CDs if you go by the red book) because it wouldn't make sense to have CCCDs if so many people want to listen to music on their iPods and buy music from an iTunes Music Store.

In conclusion, I hope that there will be an iTunes Music Store in Japan, even if it only has Japanese songs, and that it will work as a medium to bring the Japanese record companies to their senses.

(I'm really looking forward to this, especially because I'm going to buy an 30 gig iPod from a friend tomorrow - he got an iPod Photo)

Thanks Atsi for the explanation. Is such a pity. Things should get better through time.