Some people really don't think so.

That's the thesis of a Wall Street Journal article entitled "Arriving Late, Can BlackBerry Hook Japan's Mobile Market?" The article is timed with NTT DoCoMo's introduction of the BlackBerry 8707h in Japan today. That's RIM's Mike Lazaridis on the left, and an NTT DoCoMo exec on the right.

The piece discusses the Japanese market's unfamiliarity with BlackBerry, a lack of companies that sync email to enterprise systems, as well as the greater variety of functions that can be performed over Japan's robust cellular system than the functionality available to North American users.

And then there are @least a couple of cultural reasons.

"In Japan, people don't talk on cellphones in restaurants and in subway cars -- and rarely on subway platforms," writes the WSJ's Amy Chozick from Tokyo.

"They speak quietly while chatting on mobile phones in public. Tapping at a mobile phone in public is an accepted way to communicate without disturbing others," she adds.

"But in company -- say, at a sit-down dinner, at a concert or at a child's Little League game -- typing away on a BlackBerry could be frowned upon."

I wish there would be more of those manners-related best practices, well, practiced in North America.

As to the second cultural reason cited: important business deals are usually transacted in person.

"You're not going to close a deal via email," Chozick quotes Bret Sewell, chief executive officer of global wireless services provider Venturi Wireless, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif. "That's going to be done late at night in some smoky restaurant."

To that I say, well yes, I have seen some deals closed late at night in smoky restaurants. But my preference would be smoke-free restaurants.