A B68 is nothing special as needle bearings go. It is a full compliment type caged bearing which equates to higher loads. A extremely common bearing.
Here is the Koyo catalog. Look at section 5.1 for specifications on shaft requirements. This includes the "B" series as listed in the first part of the catalog.
A shaft hardness of HRC 58 is recommended as well as preferred steel alloys.
http://nocinternational.com/pdfs/koyo-b2003e-en.pdfn
The housing the bearing presses into can be mild steel or even aluminum as long as it meets roundness requirements.
The info the "rep" for Koyo gave your contradicts their published specs. No doubt Canadian Bearings will confirm this for you. You being a engineer can also interpret the specs yourself as well.
(One of my first jobs out of school was for a large bearing distributor. I went to torrington factory school as well as others. Not much has changed)