[noobermin]

The one thing I might add (don't know for sure, just guessing) is the cost of things might look different in Japan vs. here in the US. May be the cloud made a serious differential in the upfront cost as hardware is more expensive there, I don't know.

[astrange]

Buying anything in Japan (even an MS Office license) is at least more likely to require going out drinking with salespeople rather than just visiting a website.