- yes you need to speak and read Japanese
- a lot of sites embed the information inside of images, not text, which is not that easy to translate automatically and your AI agent probably won't think to check it unless you use screenshot navigation by default
- a lot of the booking will be done or expedited by phone calls
- yes you need a Japanese phone number
- yes you need a Japanese debit/credit card most of the time for online systems (or pay at the conbini, aka physical locations in Japan, American credits cards also work usually)
Japan is what it is. It's not super friendly infrastructure if you're not living there. No they don't want to change it.
I’ve been a tourist in Japan twice, and maybe it’s because we were using fairly well-worn routes or weren’t there for long, but we neither spoke Japanese, or had a Japanese payment card, or Japanese phone number, and managed okay. It’s not that impenetrable.
Yeah, well trodden paths by tourists will be more accomodating, but it doesn't take much deviation from that well trodden path to hit roadblocks. Even in Tokyo. Japan is huge. And tbh a lot of the experiences are soft-locked behind language comprehension.
