Japan certifies its first LTE device, LG says 'whoa, ours?'

In a country whose carriers' phone lineups are dominated by domestic giants like NEC, Sony, Sharp, and Fujitsu, you wouldn't necessarily think that the road to 4G would begin elsewhere -- strangely, though, South Korea's LG has garnered the honor of becoming the first company to have an LTE device certified by Japan's TELEC, a necessary, FCC-like step to getting cellular equipment deployed in those parts. NTT DoCoMo, which intends to launch commercial LTE service later this year, is undoubtedly stoked to hear that the LD100 external modem is the lucky recipient of TELEC's seal of approval (following FCC certification last year, coincidentally), meaning the carrier now has the green light to use it in trials. Considering that TeliaSonera's already beaten DoCoMo to the punch with a live, customer-facing LTE network, are the days of being shocked and awed by Japan's mobile tech drawing to a close, or are we just witnessing a little fluke here?