A few minutes ago the president of Sony Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida posted on twitter that he wouldn’t recommend importing the PS Vita from Japan.

According to Yoshida-san, there can be some minor nuisances due to playing western games on Japanese consoles, like the fact that the circle and the X buttons are inverted.

He also said that dates for the western launch will be announced soon:

Here’s the full transcript straight from the horse’s mouth:

There are people who are interested in importing the Japanese version of PS Vita from outside Japan, but I personally do not recommend that.”

Then he promised to share a launch date for the western markets soon:

Sorry to make you wait a bit longer. We will update the launch dates outside Japan soon.“

When asked to elaborate on the reason why he didn’t recommend it he explained:

Sorry I’m not explaining well, but from my experience owning both US and J game consoles of everything, there tend to be minor nuisances.“

And then he clarified  further:

Like inconsistency between the use of x and o buttons between system software and games.“

He also explained why the X and Circle buttons are in a different layout on Japanese PlayStation consoles:

 It’s a legacy, but in Japan circle means “yes”, cross means “no”.”