(Updated)
As of 11 am Tokyo time Apple has pulled Nearby services in Japan after being online earlier this morning.
Apple has rolled out Nearby services for Apple Maps in Japan. Since the iOS 9 debut Apple has been busy adding local business listings from Tabelog, Yelp and TripAdvisor.
Be wary though, Yelp and TripAdvisor listings are buggy and not very well localized for Japanese. Business names on the map may not match what you see on the street. Tabelog listings are the most reliable. Now if Apple can just fix those very annoying, unnecessarily long institution name strings (schools, hospitals, police stations, etc.), everything would be peachy.
Tokyo is the only location confirmed so far, updates will be posted here.
Update: a quick check shows Nearby availability in all areas (Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Niigata, Naha, etc.), even in remote areas such as Sado.
Update 2: not surprised Apple pulled the service. The business listing data quality isn’t there yet but the real roll out is obviously close. Simultaneous with the upcoming iOS 9.2.1 release?
