I'm very glad that I came across this theme.
I'm a foreigner living in Japan, permanent residence, Japanese husband (working for one of old major companies), kids, property, no loans on my name (though we have a loan for land and house - on my husband`s name), fluent Japanese and I have some amount of money on my deposit.
My credit card applications were rejected three times... At first, I thought ithere was some mistake. Then I started to worry if I had something written on my name that I might not know about, etc - we called the credit company and, like other people here, have got the reply that the reason for rejection will not be disclosed. Very unsettling - one starts to feel that he is a suspect or something. Well, until I read the messages on this site - now I know that I'm not alone!
I can live without a credit card but I would like to be able to purchase music and books etc online... Does anyone know how can I get around to that without a credit card?
PS: Sorry if that's a stupid question - I actually never bought anything except things for which one can pay in cash or via a bank transfer, so I'm a novice in that.