Seeking information on the Apple II "j-plus" model

["Bryan Villados" <news002@macgeek.org>]

Hey, everyone!

I'm currently in the early stages of writing an article on Apple collecting
and the Japanese. One of the areas I'm lacking information big-time is the
Apple II j-plus model. From reading postings on groups.google.com, the only
thing I can find out is that the j-plus had a different ROM. I can't find
any information on whether it supported NTSC or PAL, like the euro-plus. Did
the keyboard support Kanji/Katakana? Did the built-in text support these
character systems? Was there software written specifically for the Japanese
to read/write in Kanji? And, was the power supply able to handle both 50 and
60 cycles?

One of the areas I'm trying to investigate is why there seems to be very few
of the j-plus model in Japan today, even though that model was sold
exclusively in Japan? I'm trying to somehow link this information to the
reality of the Japanese collectors paying huge amounts of money on 8-bit and
16-bit Apple systems, if there are any links. Searching on Yahoo Japan, a
decent Apple IIe set-up is being auctioned for a starting price of 20,000
yen, which is approx. $170.00 USD. I'm suprised there aren't any bids on
that item right now.

Thanks for any info!

--- Bryan