I just came back from the official pre-launch event for the iPhone 3GS in Japan, organized by telecommunications giant SoftBank (the exclusive carrier in Nippon). The iPhone is often said to be rather unpopular in this country (which isn’t true), but even though the event began at 10 in the night, it was totally packed.

I’m guessing around 500 iPhone fans, journalists, geeks and other people gathered in the hall, which was just a minute away from SoftBank’s flag ship store in Tokyo’s upscale district Omotesando.

Have a look at the pic above and the photo gallery below to see a queue of hardcore fans lining up for the iPhone 3GS (today at 7pm) even though sales start tomorrow morning at 7am Japanese time. There are also some additional pictures from the pre-launch event.

In case you wonder who the guy in the stormtrooper suit in the pics below is: It’s Danny Choo who writes a wildly popular English blog on Japanese culture and currently prepares a Danny Choo iPhone app.

The queue looked way wilder last year (when the 3G was launched), but still this level of interest is quite impressive.