Okay, first of all, don't get your hopes too high, i don't have a guide for you on how to register in the Japanese version of Alicia Online or even a tangible release date. But i was curious what the heck is taking those asians so long to launch the damn game, so i dig around and gathered some curious info about Alicia Online and its Japanese version. There IS a Japanese version, and it WILL be released at some point. By the way, Alicia Online's name (at least, one of the names it has been called since 2009) in Japanese is this: "馬と私 の物語 アリシア" (something in the line of "Alicia: Story of My Horse"). So you can Google it too, might find something i missed.
Turns out, that NTreev (Alicia Online developers) sold publishing rights to Gamepot Inc. back in 2009. According to Wikipedia, Gamepot Inc. is "the leading publisher of MMO games" in Japan and they have a publishing division in Los Angeles, USA (Gamepot USA, Inc.). The company is known for being associated with titles such as Wizardry Online, Cabal Online and (now defunct) Fantasy Earth: Zero. So, Gamepot Japan bought publishing right of Alicia Online for a record number of 700 million yen (about 7,5 million dollars at the time), which was the largest contract for a non-RPG game, according to GameShot.
Later, speaking about Alicia Online, NTreev's representative said, that in Korea, there were no animal racing games before Alicia at all, and while they have a few of those games in Japan, the horse racing is using the same engine as a car racing game. So, with Alicia Online, they wanted to create a real sport-like experience for players and to get away from the usual scheme when a horse runs, you can hear the sound of its hooves synced to its movement, and both the horse and the character are moving naturally. Also, there is a mention of over 70% of players who ever tried playing Alicia Online are coming back to play again, which is a huge number and i really can believe that it's true.
I found an old fiscal report published by Gamepot in early 2010, and it included their plans to raise the share of online gaming in the company portfolio from 9% to 40% by marketing several titles, including Wizardry Online and Project Alice (which was Alicia Online's name at the time). Wizardry Online was released in 2011, but where the hell is Alicia?
On Japanese market, NTreev is a well-known publisher, especially with its Pangya and Trixter titles. I dug up an interview from early 2011 with someone from NTreev Global - it's really hard to understand specific terms in Google.Translate, but i think the nice lady giving that interview might be head of business department or something like that. The title of the interview states that NTreev prepares to dominate Japanese market again with Alicia Online title, and there is a question about what titles are scheduled for launch overseas. The NTreev lady aswers this: "In the second part of this year [2011] Alicia Online (pending in Japan) is scheduled for the service [to go online?]". She also adds, that because the progress status of the service is in the hands of a local publisher Gamepot, "specific schedule will be announced in the future". The interview was published at Sgame.jp March 29, 2011.
The game was getting ready for launch, but the earthquakes hit Japan. First, the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, which magnitude was 9.03 (Mw), lead to level 7 meltdowns at three reactors at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex and killed nearly 18 000. Then, April 2011 Miyagi Earthquake, which was an 7.01 (Mw) aftershock of the previous huge earthquake hitting Miyagi prefecture on April 7. Thankfully, the second smaller earthquake did not lead to any major destruction, because Japan had suffered enough. But the game was delayed, and no "specific schedule" was announce in any foreseeable future.
Here i found a discussion of Japanese Alicia fans who are wondering what is happening with the game through spring and summer of 2011 - they failed to find any local (Japanese) info on the game or its possible release date, and are discussing if they can find anything in Korean. Judging by one of the last posts in January, 2012, there was no playable version out yet. Almost a year passed, and nothing more is known about Alicia Online Japanese version, besides the fact that it exists somewhere. Gamepot Japanese website has no mention of Alicia at all, as NTreev Korean website. The only thing i can think of why this is happening, is that NTreev decided to go with what they call "Alicia 2.0" - a complete rehaul of the game - and maybe Gamepot is waiting to release that version instead of the old Alicia Online they were going to roll out.
Anyone have any other information or ideas, please share in the comments section, thanks!