Google Assistant no longer working?

[puch96]

So I got Google Assistant on my Nexus 6p phone about two weeks ago. But I did 2 updates to the Google app recently thought the play store. Now Google Assistant is gone and back to Screen Search when I press and hold home button. Anyone experience this?
Another thing is I am I'm Japan now on business trip... Could it be that it is disabled outside US?

 

[Trigati]

That's my guess. Assistant is only available in certain regions right now, and since you're outside those regions, Assistant isn't working.

 

[puch96]

It seems very strange..... I did some research, and it may be also happening to other users.....

 

[PGrey]

It a combination of locale/language, only a fairly small subset is allowed.
Based on the other "Assistant" thread, I tested this, and even switching to UK English (while it worked for awhile, correct accent and all) but located in the US, will disable it, over a period of hours.
Switching back to US English (and being located in the US) will re-enable. Look at the other thread if you want to see my diatribe about the locale complexities and my hypothesis, based on working on similar systems.