Apple iPhone Heading to Japan Via Softbank or NTT DoCoMo

Oh, the irony of it all. Normally, we find ourselves lusting after all the fantastic handsets that are exclusive to the land of the rising sun, but one phone that you will not (officially) find in Tokyo is the Apple iPhone. That may soon change, however, because Steve Jobs and the rest of the Cupertino crew are currently shopping their touchtastic mobile to a couple of Japanese cellular operators.

Apple is reportedly in talks with both Softbank Japan and NTT DoCoMo, the nation’s third and first carriers respectively, over the possibility of bringing the iPhone their way. The two firms are definitely interested, but they have both “balked over the share of subscriber revenue that Apple is demanding.” You may have heard about the $18 a month kickback that Apple receives from AT&T for every iPhone activated on their network.

“The negotiations are not going smoothly, as Apple’s conditions are extremely hard to meet,” the source said. “The ball is in Apple’s court right now.”