iPhone in Japan will be offered by Softbank. According to several Softbank employees, the company will require foreigners to show their passport. A valid visa will be required, and the expiration date should be more than 12 months later (for a 12 months contract) or 24 months later (for a 24 months contract), otherwise immediate payment of the unsubsidized price of iPhone will be required (instead of monthly installments).
This is clearly a discriminatory and illegal policy.
While I'll agree with you that this is definitely a discriminatory policy, it has nothing to do with SoftBank, Apple, or iPhone. This is a law created by the incredibly racist, xenophobic, discriminatory organization that calls itself the Japanese government. It was created several years ago under the guise of curtailing "shady elements" (i.e. Yakuza, etc.) from buying prepaid phones for conducting illegal business, then trashing them when the deal was done. It was passed in April 2006, I wasn't able to find it now, but I'm sure it wouldn't take that much google-fu.
You're not required to show your passport, there are a dozen combinations of documents that can be shown, but the passport + gaijin card is the one used most often by foreigners. Japanese people have to submit ID-verification documents too, and this is all outlined (in English) at:
http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/support/application/personal/
I opened another account on SoftBank in August and was asked for my passport, since I was doing this in the Narita airport. I said I'd like to use my Japanese driver's license instead, and that was just fine.
The real problem with this law/policy is that it prevents non-resident foreigners from getting service. But there are ways around that too -- I had a friend sign up for prepaid service with SoftBank (then Vodafone) four or five years ago, and then pass the phone to me as soon as it was activated. The storeperson had no problem with this.
So, for all means, continue to bitch about discrimination and the very special kind of "you aren't Japanese" racism that is prevalent in Japan. But don't act like its SoftBank that's the problem.
Oh, and the bit about requiring the visa expiration date to be past the contract period seems pretty damned reasonable to me. Why would you sell a product subsidized on a two-year payment plan to someone who is only allowed to be in the country for another six months?
