This week Research in Motion officially launched the first Blackberry for the Japanese market. While the launch has been eagerly awaited by displaced and relocated Americans and Europeans, corporate mobile email is a relatively miniscule market in Japan.  In fact Blackberry handsets will only be initially available to corporate customers, and not to end users.

There’s a lot of competition for Blackberry in the market and it comes in the form of counter-behavior as Japanese business professionals tend to keep their email at the office and would rather work late, then forward their corporate email to their home or to a mobile device.  In addition, Japan has its own "mobile ettiquette" which frowns on the excessive public usage of mobile phones.

"Then there are Japanese rules of etiquette. People don’t talk on their cellphones on subway cars — and rarely on platforms — or in restaurants. They even speak quietly while chatting on their mobile phones in public. Tapping at a mobile phone in public is acceptable as a way to communicate without disturbing others. In company — say during a sit-down dinner, concert or child’s Little League baseball game — typing away on a BlackBerry could be viewed as bad manners." – Wall Street Journal 9/26/06

You can rarely sit in a U.S. meeting without all of the attendees using their Blackberry. If the Blackberry breaks through in Japan, what will be the "crackberry" effect on traditional Japanese business culture and  social manners?

Chad Stoller