I am very happy that bitcoinexchange exists, but I also feel strongly that a much better market is needed for EUR (and Asian) currencies. As another poster pointed out, bitcoin's largest current constituencies seem to be Americans and Russians, with a healthy dose of Europeans.
Nobody is from Japan except Satoshi, or at least as far as I know.
Is Satoshi from Japan? I don't know that he has ever spoken of his background. His English is excellent if so, which isn't so strange considering the degree of English education common in Japan. However, even good speakers of English as a second language tend to have difficulty with some of the quirks of English. Mostly because English is so free form, yet there is a
normal way to say most things; while Japanese uses a ridgid grammar structure. If I were to guess based solely on his use of language, I would say that he is either bilingual English or knows someone who ghostwrites on his behalf who is a native English speaker. Also the fact that I've yet to see a Japanese version of Bitcoin's main webpage implies to myself that he is a native English speaker, and probably grew up in California.
Just an educated guess.