The availability (or lack thereof) of the new ipod touch in Japan has nothing to do with geography and everything to do with politics. Japan has been dumping on Apple claiming that its ipods burst into flames and such. These importation barriers are typical protectionist tactics employed by Japan since the dawn of time. In this way, Japanese business is protected from any real competition and artificially high prices are maintained in the domestic market. Japan is famous for having blocked the importation of skis from Europe on the basis that Japanese snow is different from Swiss snow.