You can apparently buy a Japanese Softbank SIM card without a handset here.

Found some more online shops that look like they may be able to ship the N900 to Japan: BLT, Sparco, and PriceUSA. Note that BLT and Sparco may require you to send a photocopy of your credit card before they agree to international shipping. Inquiring now about PriceUSA.

Anybody else with more information about Japan buying, please post it here. Or am I the only one here buying in Japan?

Good to see there's a healthy interest in people taking the N900 to Japan. Maybe once the device is a little more available some inertia can be built up behind localization/input.

I'll be moving back to Japan in Aug '10 if everything goes right.

Softbank uses uSIM, is it possible to get the ￥4,410 unlimited data plan via SIM or is uSIM supported on the n900?

Has anyone had a similar experience, or know definitively?

If you find out about this please post here, I would love to know about this!

A little out of place question here.

Why a N900 when you guys have all those uber keitai's? I know that there's not much of a good smart phone selection in Japan, but yea. I've drooling over keitai for ages. The only thing stopping me is that data and gps is not usable outside of Japan.

Let's start here:
http://mb.softbank.jp/en/products/

Look through these phones and tell me which one you like. I'm not impressed by any to tell you the truth. I too thought that a keitai would be awesome until I got one. Compared to cheap phones they're nice, compare to the n900 they're nothing special.

I own a t912, and I got that model because it had GPS and TV. However, I didn't watch tv on it because, (1) no tv on underground train, (2) ear phone plug is propriety, (2) screen is too small. I didn't use GPS because, (1) it was in Japanese, (2) drained battery in about an hour and was slow.

Look through the Softbank phones. The charges lasts 180-220 minutes. Why? Because no one talks. A keitai will last you 3 days on 1 charge don't make any calls, or 6 days if you never use it at all. Whoopy.

Don't even get me started on their phone plans. $45 for 60minutes a month. $45 additional for unlimited data.

The openness of the N900 is the major appeal for me.

As an example, my current sim-locked phone has a camera which stopped working in the middle of my overseas holiday. After working fine for 3 days, the camera app refused to start, saying "please connect to network," which was impossible because I had no overseas sim card. Besides, why on earth does the camera app need to connect to the network? So I was stuck without taking pictures.

With an open platform, this wouldn't have happened - or even if it did, i could modify the software to disable or work around the network check. The ability to have root (administrator) access to my own hardware is something that is becoming more and more important. Buying the N900 is a way of supporting the idea that private individuals, not corporate interests, should have the right to fully control hardware that they own.

i am in okinawa right now, and neither here nor at kansai international am i able to see any phone carriers. a business associate next to me had his tri-band blackberry connect to NTT Docomo while my n900 appeared to do nothing.

iv tried setting the phone to GSM, 3G, and Dual modes, but nothing gets a rise out of it.
i was hoping to use my n900 during this business trip and my tokyo/osaka vacation in february, but at this point it seems like im out of luck...

does the N900 not have a compatible radio, or am i bunking something up?

""please connect to network," which was impossible because I had no overseas sim card. Besides, why on earth does the camera app need to connect to the network? So I was stuck without taking pictures.
"

did you enable geotagging and the phone wanted to get location first.