"At present, the server capacity in Japan is not powerful enough," Niantic's John Hanke told Forbes. "We are working hard with our partners in Japan to enable the servers to keep up with demand once the game goes online there." That should sound familiar to players who already have access to the game. Pokémon Go has dealt with server issues ever since day one, and international expansion was slowed to ensure that new markets were able to handle the popular augmented reality title.

Even so, it's a bit odd to think that Japan, of all places, is having to do without a Pokémon game -- at least for now. Niantic says it expects to launch the title in its home country by the end of the month.