Japan Trip - Looking For Shopping MC Cartridge Recommendations

 chakster, the VAT is deducted at the sales desk when you check out at Yodibashi. You do not have to pay the tax and then rely upon getting a refund at customs. You never pay the tax in the first place. That is perfectly legal and lawful if you have a foreign passport. They do look carefully at your passport and check its validity. And in answer to your other question, yes, I buy something at Yodibashi or other audio store every time I go there, which is just about every year for the past several years. My biggest single purchase so far was a Koetsu Urushi  cartridge, about 10 years ago, and I don’t think I was asked to pay duty on it. I also buy LPs at disc union near the Ochanomizu train station. Disc Union also honors the passport. My son has lived in Tokyo for going on 12 years now. The savings associated with avoiding the VAT is 8% or 10%, I cannot remember which. At Yodie, you get another similar discount just for using your credit card to make a purchase. If I bought something as heavy as an SP 10 R, I would check all my suitcases at the airport and carry on the SP 10R in its box. I have done that with large containers of LPs I bought at Disc Union . US customs at Dulles airport in DC are actually surprisingly lenient with innocuous tourists like myself, as regards actually collecting the customs duty. They typically look the other way, but probably you would have to pay a modest amount of duty for something as large and obvious as the SP 10R. If I didn’t already own a fully upgraded SP10 Mk3, I’d have bought a 10R last spring.

chakster, the VAT is deducted at the sales desk when you check out at Yodibashi. You do not have to pay the tax and then rely upon getting a refund at customs. You never pay the tax in the first place. That is perfectly legal and lawful if you have a foreign passport.

good news, this is different system then, japan is so different.

So anyone with not japanese passport can buy without VAT at their store, even if a person living in japan and then can ship it to his foreign friends with declared value of $500 and marked as used or gift). Sounds like a good plan @lewm But are you sure the price is in fact 40% cheaper than in USA ?

After the discounts for passport and using a credit card the net cost would represent a 30 to 40% savings vs US prices. Closer to 40%

SP-10R is $10 000 in USA
So it must be $6 000 for a foreigner if your calculation was correct ?

See my earlier post. I think I estimated last year, based on the list price at Yodibashi, that I could walk out with a 10R for $6700. But this is based on my memory; it might have been a little less.  And it assumes paying with a Credit Card, which gets you another discount.
You might have trouble using a long term resident of Tokyo who still holds a passport other than a Japanese one, as your purchase agent.  My son is such an example; he still has a US Passport, but he doubted he could get the deal as his home address is in Tokyo. (Although he certainly could use our address in the US as his home.)  But he is employed in Tokyo as well.  I am not sure it will work, but I am not sure it won't, either.
In all of this, I have forgotten to mention the exchange rate.  The actual cost will vary up and down with the exchange rate for your particular currency, of course.

I will ask my friend in Tokyo to check it out soon 

I remembered why my son could not fabricate and say his address is same as ours in the US:  They check the date of your entry visa into Japan.  His is 10-12 years old.