To be honest this pisses me off. I travel to Japan 4-5 times a year spending enough time their to need a prepaid cell phone. If in fact they outlaw prepaid phones this it is going to make doing business in Japan more difficult. I really don’t understand their issue as they have a record of who owns them. I had to fill out a registration form and use my passport to get one. I guess if the are stolen that could be a issue. [www.textually.org]