My guess is Neteller advertise in Japanese and their site has Japanese instruction. Other sites offer some of that but the instruction is not nearly as easy to follow nor comprehensive.

Thanks for the responses. There's a couple of variables here, so let me clarify my situation.

The good news:
1) I will have a work visa.
2) I've never signed up for PokerStars.

The bad news:
3) I once had a netteller account but I haven't logged in since last April (obviously).

I'd super strongly recommend not doing what my friend did, which was to try to log in to the old Neteller account and change the profile settings. I'm talking changing the place of residence from US to Japan. Do not attempt to open another account, they will know instantly that you have one US account already. When you do this they'll flag you suspicious and they won't respond to your emails regarding account status update for a long time.

So, do nothing, and wait until you get your alien registration card, a place to live, and Japanese land line phone number or cell phone number. Once you have them then you email support team and explain your situation to them. Ask them to assign you a new account number and send in the documents required. Don't touch any thing on their site until you get a reply email containing your new membership information. Wait for the phone call to have your account validated. Then you can log in and check to see if everything is correct and updated but until then don't log in to your new account. Never ever touch the old US account, it's gone with the wind, and they will tell you not to use it at all.

I actually know a thing or two about Asian financial institutions so I'll tell you. Three biggest banks in Japan are Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, or Mizuho Bank. There is also CitiBank in Japan. I highly recommend Mitsubishi Bank the most. It's the most stable and secured out of all four banks. I have done some business with them in the past and their business ethic and service is outstanding. Go to one of the bigger Mitsubishi Bank branch that has a International Banking Department and they have staffs that speak English. Ask them about opening a regular saving account. Tell them that you intend to make bank wire transfer to Rakuten Bank in future so that they don't open the wrong type of account for you. After your new Japanese bank account is ready, put some money in there, transfer some money into Neteller account. 7 days later you can transfer money into PS account. I'd use their bonus code if I were you. May be see if you can find deals on getting a free poker hand tracking software like HM2 or PT4 by opening a new PS account. I think your first deposit limit is $600 per 10 days or something like that.

Good luck at the tables!!

p.s. Don't touch anything at Neteller site except email support team page. I warned you!!

lol

You don't necessarily have to wait until you get your alien registration card to contact Neteller to ask if they'll re-enable your account and change your residence to Japan and what documentation you'll need to submit. Might as well send that email now, particularly if they are going to take a while to respond.

You can also check with Moneybookers in parallel - no harm in doing both and seeing which one gets set up first.

I am not sure I would want to get into recommending banks, but I would point out that Mitsubishi-UFJ and Mitsui-Sumitomo both have very nice online banking systems that are Japanese only. Citibank has a fairly clunky but bilingual online system. Shinsei bank has a much nicer (than Citi) bilingual online system, which I prefer. (Though it is harder to find Shinsei branches and ATMs that will service your card outside business hours.) I don't like to have to actually go to a bank branch if I can help it. All of the above systems will let you do domestic money transfers online, so you don't even need to visit an ATM.

Jesus, we should just write a goddamn book, shouldn't we?

Anyhow, you may also want to get an account on the Japan iTunes store, since the PokerStars Mobile application is available here.

Yes, I think I agree, go ahead and go to contact support team page as soon as possible and send a message asking to make you a new account number, since you can't send them regular email to begin with. They do take a long time to respond, that's what I heard. I'm sure it's gonna take a while for you to get all the documents so you might as well start the process early. Main thing is to be honest. Don't try to log in to your old US account though, you are gonna feel tempted to make the change yourself like my friend did.

I recommended Mitsubishi Bank because I used them before but pick any bank you want. I like it because they have nice international banking staffs that speak English. I converted USD to Yen before and it was easy.

If James says you can do it online in English then I think that's great. I'd do that instead.

I feel like I have been going on and on about minutiae, so I will shut up now. This should be enough to get the OP started, so if you have any other questions you can let us know.

Neteller will require you have a local ID card or those scammers will try to keep your money.

Thanks, guys. I'll get the ball rolling.

Sooooo....

If it is easy enough to get started playing poker in Japan, and the population is 127 million, then why isn't it more popular?
Using stereotypes to save time: They are a hi tech country full of early adopters that love computer games. Why isn't online poker huge over there? Is there a cultural thing? Are the laws stricter then outline above?

Probably because of this, and the fact that outside of pachinko, gambling in Japan falls under the realm of the Yakuza.

This was already covered well in this thread, but having done this myself and assisted dozens of Americans moving away for gambling, will add here that opening a new NETELLER account as an American is very simple if you have a local ID and utility bill.

1) Open a new account - if you've had a US account before right away their system will inform you your account has been closed over details matching another account.

2) Request call back service (make sure to use this option, because if you just email, they'll then tell you to use call back service instead) and mention is the message this is likely due to having a US account, but you've since moved, have an ID here and are a bona fide resident of country X and would like the old account closed and a new one opened.

3) They'll call you back and ask you some questions, and then send an email reminding you need to send your local ID and utility bill.

4) Send this and the next day your new account will be opened and ready to go.

5) You can request the MasterCard debit that associates with your account at this time, and takes around 10 days to arrive and the pin follows it a week later. (note: you don't need to wait for your pin - when activating your card it tells you your pin online, and you can also request to view the pin online at anytime).

I don't much about Japan but if you have a proper visa getting a drivers license is simple in most countries. Getting utility bills is often not as simple. Anything however will work and you might need to go company to company shopping for billed monthly phone (and this could be agent to agent of the same company), or cable company or anything else willing to put a bill in your name until finding one.

With an ID and Utility bill of another country you can use all e-wallets available to that country and all gambling sites available to that country with only a few minor exceptions. Most the sites popular in Europe don't care that you're an American. And it's a couple companies, like Fonbet (Russia) Fortuna (Czech) etc. that decline Americans for sports betting just for being a citizen, but none of these sites are worth using anyways. All the gambling sites (poker, betting, casino etc.) worth using, will accept you if you're a resident somewhere else.

If you would let conquer Japan the USA and wouldnt stop them ... you could play now all online poker at pokerstars ( ironic, before some ultra nationalist republican George Bush voter come down the road)

back to the topic

Moneybookers i way better as Neteller.. much less fees

im also thinkiing its much easier to handle as you can open your neteller from every country ( except USA ) and use it .... thats not going for Neteller ... and its a headache process with them at all time.

I am looking to gain information with regards to the status of online gambling in Japan, if anyone has any info or can redirect me to someone. Thanks in advance

Don't know why, but can't seem to edit my prior post (it was moved from another thread to here). Anyhow, anyone following the recent developments concerning legalisation of gambling?