JPY <=> BTC, seriously lacking

[markietalkie]

So here's what I found after two full restless days of resilient research, assuming you do not have bank account in USA or other countries where BTC service coverage is good

JPY => BTC
  -international bankwire to MtGox, etc: bank will charge you 5500 JPY.
  -fund JPYs with NETELLER/Moneybooker domestic bank wire--> buy VirWox USD --> buy SSL with USD --> buy BTC with SSL. for each conversion you pay commission of 2%~4%.
  -buy BTC at amazingly high rate at Youtip: http://www.youtipit.org/faq currently 1BTC on sale for 27.5200 USD
  -buy liberty reserve from crappy Japanese vendors, takes severals days or up to several weeks

if you do have USD bank account in Japan,
  -go on forex market, buy USD with JPY, cash out, than international bank wire (which will cost you about 5500 JPY anyway ), fund Gowalla and than MtGox

if you have more than 10000000 JPY in Citibank Japan's bank account,  you'll be able to send funds to any bank account in the world for free.

BTC => JPY
   -cash out with liberty reserve, find someone to have it international bank wire to Japan, absurd handling fee as always
   -buy SSL with BTC --> buy USD/other real money with SSL on VirWox --> Paypal --> domestic bank wire



TL;DR: there are no viable option to buy or sell BTC from Japan,unless 5500 JPY is ignorable to you, or  you have 10000000 JPY sitting in Citibank Japan's account, or you don't mind losing 10-20% of your asset.


Has anyone had any luck?

[Jason Keith]

I transferred JPY to MtGox's SMBC account from my Shinsei Bank account and it was converted to USD using the Google rate. I then bought BTC at the going rate minus 0.65% in fees to MtGox for the exchange. Shinsei give me 5 free domestic transfers a month so that didn't cost me anything. Keep an eye on TradeHill. They are coming up with some alternatives too.
Get an account with them and use my referral code for a discount on the exchange fee they'll charge you.
TH-R1651

[markietalkie]

I transferred JPY to MtGox's SMBC account from my Shinsei Bank account and it was converted to USD using the Google rate. I then bought BTC at the going rate minus 0.65% in fees to MtGox for the exchange. Shinsei give me 5 free domestic transfers a month so that didn't cost me anything. Keep an eye on TradeHill. They are coming up with some alternatives too.
Get an account with them and use my referral code for a discount on the exchange fee they'll charge you.
TH-R1651

Holy shit, my brain must be really fried.  Thanks for the info! Will look out for referral input box.

Now, is there any better way to cash out BTC?

[Jason Keith]

If you live in the Chugoku region, we might be able to meet up and trade.

[markietalkie]

If you live in the Chugoku region, we might be able to meet up and trade.

Unfortunately I live in Tokyo, and I haven't got any track record of online purchase besides my eBay rating.
I was hoping to secure cash out method - would you be interested in private trade online some point in future, at near-MtGox's rate? FYI, here's my eBay profile under an alias http://myworld.ebay.com/kalcifero - avatar changed to include my username.