The Pokemon Company
"Pokémon Go" is available in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Germany - but not Japan.
While the entire Pokémon universe was invented by Satoshi Tajiri in 1995, and owned by The Pokémon Company, which is Japanese, "Pokémon Go" isn't officially released there. And people in Japan are not happy about it.
The reason for Japan's lack of access to the game is simple: While all the other Pokémon games are developed by Nintendo, a Japanese company, and released in Japan months before they're translated and released in the rest of the world, "Pokémon Go" was made by Niantic, an American one.
So, the game may have not been fully translated yet. And besides, the international rollout is going slowly because the game's servers frequently overload.
When a Niantic spokesperson asked Japanese fans to "wait a little bit more," people got mad. Here are some of the responses he got on Twitter, as translated and quoted by Kotaku:
"Please tell us why Japan is getting such a late release. The words 'a little bit' are like causing my brain to melt with stress."
"Tell me the damn release date."
"The heck does 'a little bit more' mean anyway? If you can't do it, say that from the start. What are you, a politician?"
"Is making us wait three or four more days 'a little bit more'? I have no idea why this isn't being released when it's finished. I'm not saying release the game right now, but explain why you can't release it in Japan."
"Is the Japan release delayed? If that's the case, then erase all of Nintendo's foreign companies. Pokémon is a game that Japan made, right? I think that by all rights, we should get the release first... This isn't, like, the level of being nice to others (lol), and no doubt you're probably feeling good that it's popular abroad! It sucks here!"
"It's a Japanese game, so why don't you release it?"
There are ways to play "Pokémon Go" in countries where it's not released. Here's how to play it in the UK, for example. Your success rate may vary.