bill - 4:23 am on Aug 24, 2004 (gmt 0)

Actually Ask Jeeves has been in the Japanese market since at least 2000 through their joint venture with Trans Cosmos. Here's a thread from last year: Ask Jeeves Japan [webmasterworld.com].

If memory serves, they've always had some sort of beta search up, but this looks much more substantial. I'm glad they finally look like they're serious about the general search market in Japan.