[steven]

I apologize if it's already been bruoght up, but what about JBC? (I think that's what it's called).

I remember my mom got one of those cards to shop in a Japanese super market in California, and I found out it could be used in Japan after I got here. I've seen it on the windows of taxi cabs and at stores and all that. I believe it's pretty major but I don't deal too much with credit cards so I'm no expert on the subject.

I've been living in Japan for 2 years and I can't get a credit card here yet. I've only tried for super market credit cards, as the ladies at the cash registers have suggested I get one before. I got a "we're sorry" type of ambiguous letter in the mail about it afterwards. I'm assuming it's hard for credit card companies to hand out cards to foreigners who may or may not be permanant. I couldn't even get an ETC card! Yikes!

One other thing-- If you're only planning on staying a year it might not be a big deal, but if you plan to stay longer or plan to order things online, you might want to change your billing adress for that credit card to your Japanese address as a lot of companies won't ship internationally unless your billing adress matches your shipping adress. It can take some time to switch (which is a minor inconvenience) but the phone calls you may or may not have to make can cost you. Hopefully someone with more knowledge about this stuff can help you with that.

EDIT: I just realized, I have no idea if JCB have ATMs or not. I assume they do but I'd check with more experienced people on that one.