While the rest of the world is busy implementing 3G wireless networks, japs are still stuck downloading 10k max packets at 9600.
There are two major mobile phone companies in Japan, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI. There are others, but they don't really make any difference and are localized to a particular area.
KDDI seems to be run by non-japs or at least by intelligent japs because the company appears to have a lot more clue than DoCoMo. They've been using Qualcomm CDMA hardware ever since the beginning, now switching to CDMA2000 for 3G.
DoCoMo, on the other hand, seems to care more about filling their useless website with gratuitous Flash, than focusing on customer concerns. DoCoMo hardware is all custom digital 800mhz (and some 1500mhz) units which use some custom DoCoMo protocol which doesn't work anywhere else in the world.
I don't know much about KDDI technology other than its world-standard CDMA and now CDMA2K, and they even offer "world phones" which can be used in Japan as well as United States, Europe, etc for very little additional cost.
DoCoMo's crap doesn't work anywhere other than Japan. Their new "3G" tech requires complete overhaul of all cell sites. Compare with KDDI, which will be able to reuse current cell sites and antennas, only upgrading some hardware in order to roll out a country-wide 3G network. DoCoMo will be slowly rolling out their 3G trash, first around large cities like Tokyo etc. Currently, "FOMA" which is a engrish acronym for "Freedom Of Mobile information Access" or some other crap, is quite possibly one of the shittiest 3G implementations in the world. Of course, DoCoMo won't tell you that because they want you to believe their vision of the future is the best one. Since DoCoMo started their "3G" network in October 2001, they collected some 130000 subscribers, who are quickly dropping the worthless service as they realize the coverage is nonexistent and the per-second charges are too damn high. KDDI, on the other hand, which started its CDMA2000 service in April 2002, already has over 2.3 million customers using their new service. And Unlike DoCoMo, using KDDI CDMA2K handsets you can actually have a reliable 144kbps data transmission almost everywhere.
Did I mention, DoCoMo does NOT have a flat-rate data service plan? If you want to download shit at 1980s modem speeds, you gotta pay per minute and per packet for it. KDDI, on the other hand, with their 64k and 128k AirH" service, has a reasonably priced unlimited data plan which costs <$100 a month for unlimited packet traffic. Some people (students for example) actually rely on this service for always-on internet connection because installing phone lines in a dorm is not allowed.
Phone size has been increasing lately, contrary to the usual "japs like small shit" rule. The clam-shell phones are nearing 1" thickness for the latest DoCoMo 504i models, and seems like normal phone-shaped phones are not "popular" anymore.
Of course, as a rule, if you have a mobile phone which is more than 2 months old, you must immediately replace it with the latest model or face constant teasing from your coworkers that your phone doesn't play 48 voices of melody at once or has a screen with less than 65k colors.
Did I mention DoCoMo's "inventions" such as iMelody (midi files), iAnime (animated gifs), iAppli (bastardized java runtime which is limited to 10k total jar file size and requires you to use ghetto programming techniques), iShot (taking washed out 120x120 jpegs with a built-in camera and mailing them to other phones)....
Phone cameras such as sh251i are nice BUT - You cannot turn off the shutter "sound" when you take the picture. This makes it basically worthless, as primary use for such cameras would be to take pictures under the schoolgirls skirts on busy trains in Tokyo. There are other claimed legitimate uses such as taking a picture of the person and having it pop up on your screen when they call, etc, but the image quality, lack of image processing and lack of image storage space on the phone make that feature almost useless.