Sorry, Patrick, have to disagree with you on this one: 12 years of residency, started a Godo Gaisha, had to jump hoops even with my bank I'd had a personal account with all those years just to get a standard savings account.
Credit card was the same for me, although friends have had easier time. I owned a house, a car, registered a business - could not get a personal cc with company my family had been using for over 10 years without doing major banter and restrictions.
I can't imagine a foreigner coming over here with no spousal connections and setting up a company for a year.
There's a great deal of variance among Japanese banks regarding their policies on issuing credit cards to gaijin, all of which are (of course!) undocumented. A random list of cards that are supposedly easier to get:
Credit card was the same for me, although friends have had easier time. I owned a house, a car, registered a business - could not get a personal cc with company my family had been using for over 10 years without doing major banter and restrictions.
I can't imagine a foreigner coming over here with no spousal connections and setting up a company for a year.