EDIT: On the banking side, looks my employer has an agreement with Citibank for no fees for executing overseas transfers - though the 1 JPY bid spread applies.
Keep a large balance with Shinsei and you get a 0.5 yen spread on JPY<>USD currency exchanges, plus one fee-free international wire a month.
http://www.shinseibank.com/english/r...epup_guide.pdf
Their default fee for international wires is 4,000 yen and the default spread is 1 yen. As of late they have had a number of limited-time offers for no-spread JPY>USD exchanges (but only in that direction), usually once a month for a couple of days' duration, but you have to register for their email service in Japanese in order to get the details.