Sorry Japan

Pokémon GO has slowly but surely finding its way to more countries over the past week, but one region which is still waiting is Japan. Despite briefly getting the game alongside Australia and New Zealand, access was withdrawn when it became clear that the game's servers couldn't cope with the demands of Pokémon's homeland.

Server problems continue to plague the game irrespective of where you happen to be in the world, and Niantic CEO John Hanke says the smartphone app won't be coming to Japan for a while yet as the servers need beefing up before a launch can take place:

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At present, the server capacity in Japan is not powerful enough. We are working hard with our partners in Japan to enable the servers to keep up with demand once the game goes online there. We expect it to be released by the end of July.

According to Forbes, even late July might be optimistic - some industry experts think that September is more likely.

Hanke expects the game to expand to over 200 countries "within a couple of months". Are you still waiting for your dose of monster-catching goodness, or have you succumbed to temptation and used our guide to install the game even if it's not available in your region?

[source forbes.com]