Joe,
if I were an AMEX card holder in another country with a sound history, does that help? Or would I still have to start from square one? They have an international transfer unit, but I'm not sure I could get at the ANA gold through that. (Not ending up back in Japan for a while, but it would be good to know).
When applying for the credit card call them directly. Give them your Amex number over seas and I believe they will allow international Credit Transfer. My uncle did this with USA and Thailand before and it worked.
I was going to do this if I got rejected here in Japan to check my US Amex card, but it was not necessary
