Car Sharing Companies and their Requirements

[gekkonaut]

Hey folks,

So I was looking for a zipcar / flexicar / etc. type of company in Japan. Owning a car in metro Tokyo or Osaka would obviously be ridiculous, but the opportunity to be able to grab one and get out of the city for a few hours on the cheap is extremely appealing.

So I found a couple of them - namely http://timesplus.jp/ .. this looks perfect - rates are reasonable (Y2000 for 6pm to midnight - awesome!) .. and all you have to do is book it instantaneously on your phone and walk up to the car and tap in..

However, as a gaijin, I'm a little stuck. I can easily transfer my aussie license over to a Japanese one - that's no issue. The issue is that they seem to require a LOCAL credit card (in ones name) to sign up. Debit/Bank cards not accepted. Suffice to say, as I'll be entering in August on a working holiday visa, getting a LOCAL credit card would be impossible. It's too bad they don't seem to allow foreign credit cards - got plenty of those.

So my question is .. has anyone successfully been able to sign up for timesplus or something similar being in my situation without a local credit card?

Curious to hear if you have any experience on this one.

Gek

[gekkonaut]

aw shucks, i was hoping someone had some experience in this