Speaking to Wired's Chris Kohler, NOA's George Harrison has said there is a possibility of Japan-only releases heading to the U.S. Virtual Console.

George HarrisonWe are aware that there are some very successful Japanese franchises that have a small following in the US, and that they could never be reached by putting these products out at retail. We're open to games released in Japan if we can get them translated properly.

Harrison says that in the meantime, Nintendo is busy enough with U.S. releases, so releases of this kind will come later rather than sooner.