A report from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry says that there have been cases of iPods overheating and scorching nearby materials. While the exact cause of the overheating wasn't mentioned, it is not hard to imagine that it is likely related to malfunctioning lithium-ion batteries. At the moment, the Japanese government is only issuing a warning to iPod Nano owners to beware about overheating, in particular when charging.

The associated risk of lithium-ion batteries overheating is a long-running one. Laptop providers such as Apple, HP, Dell and others have, on occasion, issued recalls for batteries at great expenses. Apple's Japanese office did not have an immediate comment on this issue.

For more about overheated iPod batteries:
- check out the article [1] from InformationWeek