Well things seem to have improved slightly. I am logged in with the Japanese Kobo site (no new Rakuten account needed) and I was able to get my credit card working finally. I could be wrong but there seems to be no (not as much) agency pricing as there was before and I was just able to pick up a book with a 45% off coupon code. I also see that today Stephen King's 11/22/63 novel has changed from being 1680 yen to only 980 yen which means that if I can get a decent coupon I should be able to pick it up for only about 500 yen now which is pretty sweet. So I guess Kobo is getting a stay of execution from me for now.
