The reason it's Japanese only is because there were no repeaters allowed at that time.. so no repeater shift, no tone burst and no CTCSS either.. just like the FT-290 has no repeater shift as that was Japanese market only. The FT-290R does have repeater shift and tone burst and that's what the R stands for. They did make a 232 version for European market I think is a 252.
The reason it's Japanese only is because there were no repeaters allowed at that time.. so no repeater shift, no tone burst and no CTCSS either.. just like the FT-290 has no repeater shift as that was Japanese market only. The FT-290R does have repeater shift and tone burst and that's what the R stands for. They did make a 232 version for European market I think is a 252.