Regarding the sales suspension due to the "bricking issue," users had been growing increasingly anxious and suspicious amid a prolonged silence. However, it seems Sony has finally made an announcement.
これによると、「製品の一部の製造ロットにおいて製造工程の不備により基板が故障する場合があることが判明しました。」とのことなので、やはりハード(基盤)に問題があったようだ。 交換は7月18日より順次となるようだ。なお、上記はSIMフリーモデルについてのアナウンスで、各事業者扱いのものについては、「通信事業者各社にお問い合わせいただきますようお願いいたします」とのことなので、それぞれ追って発表があるのだろう。 According to the announcement, "It has been discovered that some manufacturing lots of the product may have defective circuit boards due to flaws in the production process." This confirms that the issue was indeed hardware-related (the circuit board). Replacements are scheduled to begin sequentially from July 18. Please note that this announcement applies to SIM-free models. For units sold through various carriers, the statement advises customers to "please contact your respective carrier," so separate announcements will likely be made by each provider in due course.
On the other hand, even if their devices haven’t bricked yet, those eligible for replacement will still have to back up their current phones and reinstall everything from scratch, which must be quite frustrating. I have many thoughts about this issue, but for now, I sincerely hope this trouble is resolved smoothly and that the affected customers receive proper support.