Dottocomu is reporting via Canada's National Post that DoCoMo and RIM are working together on a BlackBerry for Japan, to be released sometime later this year. According to the reports, both are working on localizing the software and interface.

Analysts had previously said they expected pilots to be underway soon, though Dottocomu says it believes they haven't begun yet due to technical delays.

This news comes as China Unicom is gearing up to launch its BlackBerry knockoff, the RedBerry, later this year. It will be interesting to see whether China and Japan take to the device itself, or if ultimately the software functionality and push-mail abilities are what works, in another handset.