It looks as if the japanese are not the only ones having problems with their xboxs, the defective DVD drives that have been damaging the discs are now appearing in europe. I myself can confirm this. About a week after buying my xbox it started making really wierd and loud noises while loading games. After looking at my discs i noticed ALL of them had serious damage from scratches or what looked to be burn marks.

Keep a good eye on your discs!