Mattel has created a stir by changing the rules of Scrabble to allow more proper nouns. These will include company names, brand names, place names etc. Clearly, then, knowledge of Japan will now be a key weapon as you can throw in ""Sony, "Osaka" and "Hatoyama" at will. I reckon "Mixi" and "gree" will come in handy in some tight spots but you might want to be wary about using words like "Tenga" or "Noriko" in case you are called on to explain. I was wondering what Japanese words were already acceptable in scrabble under the old rules. A website here claims to have found over 150 words in various editions of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary. Debito needs to get on the case fast: it seems "gaijin" is fine but not "gaikokujin".