PlayStation Home has been long in coming thanks to delays and tweaking, but Sony Computer Entertainment is promising good things are in store for the PlayStation Network's upcoming community-based service.  From today until August 11th, the games division is accepting applications for Home's closed beta.  The catch is that the applications are currently open for users in Japan only.

Home's closed beta itself will go online later next month, and is expected to accomodate 10,000 users during the testing period.  SCE hopes to host closed betas for other markets around the same time period, but nothing is set in stone at the moment.  During E3, SCE CEO Kazuo Hirai anticipated that an open beta would commence later this Fall, if all goes according to plan.