Apple started rolling out the iPad 2 internationally right after the launch in the US, but one country was missing from the list: Japan, one of the company’s biggest markets worldwide. The reason, of course, was the quake and tsunami that hit the country on March 11. But today Japan’s biggest business daily, The Nikkei, is reporting that the Japanese will be able to lay their hands on the iPad 2 as early as this Thursday.
The launch was originally slated for March 25. Apple Japan hasn’t updated its website yet, but The Nikkei is usually a pretty reliable source so you can expect the device to actually arrive on Thursday.
The paper also says that the iPad 2 will be offered in Apple’s seven Japanese brick-and-mortar stores, through business partner SoftBank’s shops and via the company’s website. Just last Friday, Apple re-opened a store in Sendai, one of the cities that was particularly damaged in the disaster.
UPDATE: Apple just announced that, yes, the iPad 2 will be available in Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, and eight other countries this week.