Fell in love with this toaster when I first used it at MONday apartment in Kyoto. Came back to the USA, bought one, and quite disappointed because it was different. #1 the water cup is plastic, the one in Japan is ceramic. #2 Japanese version has a place to hang the cup on the side of the toaster. #3 lastly, the customer service said that the Japanese version has one more thing that's removable for easy cleaning, but not the USA version. In my head I was thinking `why did they make this part for the USA version not removable for easy cleaning? Because the US is "dumber"?` Hah, no idea.
Anyway, might be better to just buy one while you're in Japan and use it here in the US. It has more premium feeling overall. Ceramic cup with a good weight to it. A place to hang the cup on the side of the toaster. And one more removable part for easy cleaning. The only thing is you need to use a voltage converter. And Balmuda does not recommend this. If you decide to do this, do it at your own risk.