Are most credit cards accepted in Japan.

Visiting Japan in May of 08 and would like to know if most credit cards are accepted my commerical shopping stores in Japan? If so what are the main ones.
Thanks

Yes most major commercial shops, departments stores etc accept credit cards, they accept all major brands, Visa (most accepted ), but I've had no problems with my American Express or Mastercard.

Yes, many large stores accept credit cards, but smaller stores don't accept them very often. So you cannot purchase every stuff with plastic. You need some money, too.

One thing you'll notice is some stores in Japan discriminate purchase with credit cards, which is actually a licence violation with credit card networks.

I had a problem with my Mastercard that has the embedded chip on it. They kept asking me for a pin number which I don't have or require in North America.
However, all my other "non-chip" cards worked fine. This was early this year so things may have changed.

Some credit card transactions in Japan do require you to know your cards pin number. Most if not all credit cards (including the ones with chips) you can request a PIN to be sent to you.