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As far as Yahoo Japan is concerned, Sony’s out and Apple’s in.  The iTunes Store will now serve as Yahoo Japan’s primary music seller.

Sony Out, iTunes In

Sony’s not been entirely forsaken - users can still find their way to its offerings.  But, as Martyn Williams, a reporter for the IDG News Service, writes, “The partnership means that visitors to the Yahoo Music pages now see a prominent link to iTunes in the menu bar and one-click access to the download service.  Until Thursday, Yahoo Japan had relied solely on Mora, a download service run by the Sony-affiliated LabelGate, for music downloads.”

As for how much money may have changed hands, nobody’s talking, but Masahiro Inoue, the president of Yahoo Japan, was willing to describe the deal in general terms.  “I’m very happy that, thanks to the cooperation with iTunes, users of Yahoo Japan will be able to access the iTunes store directly,” he stated.  “We will provide broader content and functions through our services that have attracted many users.”

The AFP, which carried Inoue’s statement, then hinted at the arrangement’s implications; as most of you probably know, the iPod isn’t a uniquely American phenomenon.  “Apple has sold more than 100 million iPods since introducing them in 2001 and the devices command about 75 percent of the global MP3 player market,” the AFP article reveals.

Looks like Yahoo Japan made a good decision in switching to the iTunes Store, though Sony and Mora probably wouldn’t agree.