Mobile Number in Japan?

A lot of my website visitors are from Japan, but I would like to further leverage the Japanese market by registering on their social network site named mixi. They need a Japanese mobile phone number for registration though, and I am not in Japan and don't know anybody there!

Does anybody know of a service online where I can receive text messages via a Japanese mobile number? I don't mind paying money for it. I guess it sounds like such a long shot, but I thought I would ask!

Thanks!

try finding a japanese proxy, then sign up for a google voice account. maybe it will give you a japanese number you can use?

Well dunno if you need to receive text messages or not:

without text messaging just get a virtual phone number and forward the calls to your local phone for example with



or according to their feature list this website offers virtual numbers which can receive text messages from Japan too

Thanx guys! Great tips and I will try them!

Won't work with google voice. You receive an email on your mobile phone with a clickable link, means you need a mobile phone that can access the internet. A few months ago there was still a loophole on how to register with mixi without having a japanese mobile phone number. Until this time I was able to create several accounts. Unfortunately this method stopped working and now it works with a real japanese mobile phone (contract! even prepaid phone no. won't work) number only. I need to check if some of my idle accounts are still working. If you want I can do some promotion for you from one those accounts, e.g. create community, fan page etc.

you need physical no ..google voice will not work..i think skype will work