I live in Japan and collect vintage Japanese cards.
The great thing about collecting here is that the hobby is in some ways like it was in the US in the 60s and 70s - there are still hoards of old (1930s-1960s) cards out there owned by people who are just looking to get rid of them and have no idea what they are or that they are worth anything. So when you see a "too good to be true" opportunity it almost always turns out to be both "good" and "true". Antique dealers are really good sources for vintage stuff since most of them don't know what they have on their hands either.
Stuff like this is what collecting here is like:
https://baseballcardsinjapan.blogspo...40s-menko.html