Today Bayonetta arrives in stores throughout Japan for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Obviously we're a bit jealous but it seems we won't have to wait too long to get the game here in the West.

Sega announced this morning that the third-person action game will be released in the U.S. on January 5th. Europe will get it shortly afterward, on January 8th. Sega also promises "exclusive pre-order items" for these markets but details were not mentioned in the press release.

With only a couple months to go until January, you can expect to hear a lot more about Bayonetta soon. Yesterday, Sega released the first developer diary video.