Apple Inc.

You don’t get tax refunds for online purchases. The retail store will only have JP keyboards so you have to decide if that’s worth the 100$ saving. EDIT: It seems if you are lucky, the Apple store might carry some US QWERTYs, but still unlikely for walk-ins. Pre-order online is the only way to guarantee it More on reddit.com

Yes you can get tax-free purchases at Bic Camera and Yodobashi. No, you can't get tax rebates at the airport. More on reddit.com

Depends on where you're coming from. If you're going from the US, Apple products may be a little cheaper or equal priced if you can get the 10% tax-free on them. With tax refund, a base model iPhone 15 Pro would cost about $950 right now in Japan (compare to $1000 before tax in the US). Exchange rate will play heavily in this - we're still in an era of extremely advantageous exchange rates (if you're coming with USD/EUR/GBP). But you can also just go check yourself - go to the websites of stores like Yodobashi Camera or BIC Camera and see. You can also check the Apple Japan website for their prices, but note that Apple Stores in Japan do not do the tax refund. More on reddit.com

In Japan, companies that buy & sell used goods are required to hold a license to be involved in such dealings. It's issued by the police and is known as a 古物商許可. One of the requirements of holding this license is that the holder be able to completely track the source of any product they buy back to the person that sold it to them. Goal is to make it much more difficult to sell stolen goods. Companies have to keep this information on file for a number of years in case of any police investigation. People who are known affiliates of criminal organizations are also blacklisted from getting a license like this, to try to keep them out of the used goods business. So yes, the requests are reasonable given the licensing requirements. Obviously it's one more area where having foreign names is a pain in the ass, but that's life as a tiny tiny minority in a country like Japan. If you want to sell your phones for the most money without dealing with Apple's partner, you can use Yahoo Auctions or Mercari. There is more fraud risk there (someone returning a rock in a box type thing), and you have to make sure your account is verified and that you will be able to withdraw funds. You can find many posts on here about people who sold things on Mercari or Yahoo and then were unable to get their money out because they couldn't get past the verification process. Name issues, generally, same as you are facing now. More on reddit.com