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Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry handhelds are among the most popular wireless devices in the world, shipping over 5-million units in over 60 countries, including many Asian markets, such as Hong Kong (a China Special Administrative Region), Singapore, and the Philippines. Over the course of the last month, however, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company has greatly enhanced its presence on that continent.

Just this week, for example, Japan's largest mobile operator, NTT DoCoMo, said it would be the first carrier to offer BlackBerry in that country. The operator will roll out the addictive handhelds and push e-mail/data access service to its 51 million subscribers on its GSM/GPRS and W-CDMA - also known as UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) - networks later this year.

Today's news follows the inaugural launch of RIM's products in Korea - Asia's third largest economy - through the introduction of the BlackBerry 7100i (see our review) on KT Powertel's network, and last month's the blockbuster deal to finally launch BlackBerry to the Chinese mainland's 400-million wireless users via China Mobile—after more than two years of negotiations, bureaucratic hassles and delays.

Jim Balsillie, RIM's co-CEO, said to Reuters he looks forward to entering the Japanese market because of its large corporate presence, "both foreign multinationals in Japan and Japanese multinationals that operate abroad," he explained.

While RIM and NTT DoCoMo didn't indicate what BlackBerry model would be offered, they did say it would have a QWERTY thumb-keyboard, which would eliminate any of the 7100 series models and their SureType keyboard/keypad hybrids. Our best guess conjures up a model based on the recently announced 8707v, the first thumb-board BlackBerry with high-speed broadband UMTS technology.

3G UMTS enables users to receive e-mail, browse the Web and access other data services at transfer speeds of 300 to 400 kbps, with bursts as high as 2 Mbps.

It is also well rumored that RIM may introduce some multimedia-centric BlackBerry handhelds in the fall. So, perhaps, one of these models may make it to Japan as well.

BlackBerrys strengths in communications, messaging, security and management should appeal to corporate Japan, yet even that market may have trouble adjusting when it comes to the traditional BlackBerry model’s design; which, while functional and ergonomic, flies in the face of what that market is used to.

"The [country's] devices are very design-led - the Japanese love their features but they have to be done in a very consumery way. From a hardware perspective, RIM is going to look large and clunky – it's flying in the face of handset design and it's difficult for non-Japanese vendors to do well in that market," Canalys research analyst Nick Spencer told silicon.com.

Gartner said RIM was the top-selling PDA vendor - with 929,883 thousand BlackBerrys shipped - last quarter; not counting the 517,000-strong BlackBerry 7100 series, which the anaylst firm considers a smartphone.