My cousin lives in Japan (he's always telling me what awesome products they have over there) and now I'm wondering how can I use this to sell some stuff from Japan on ebay that people in the states might want.
A couple of my friends teach English in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. I'm always sending them money to send me all the cool/funny/bizarre toys, shirts, etc. You'd probably do pretty good if you sold the t-shirts with misinterpreted sayings. make sure to sell some Masaki Sumitani aka "Razor Ramone" aka "Hard Gay" goods
Just research on ebay. Have him tell you a few products, and look up completed auctions and see how they do.
I live in Japan - one of my first web businesses years ago was selling used "doujinshi" - a type of small press underground comic book. They use to sell very well on eBay - but there were a lot of Verio issues because these doujinshi comics often parody popular books, movies and anime whose trademark owner's didn't appreciate these works of art. In the 80's there were also a lot of vintage LP collectors here in Japan who traveled around the globe finding rare albums (especially UK and US releases) for their collections. This fad passed, but now Japan is a great place to find these old and valuable albums that collectors back in the west are looking for. Hope this helps.
I had this idea to survive while trying to stay in Tokyo ( as I hate living in England now) however its petty expensive Mind you you will have to compete with jlist.com P.S Beware the Yakuza
Actually, if you wanted to use your cousin as a source for photos and information about cool products etc.. in Japan, you could create a blog that could get a lot of buzz/traffic and PROMOTE jlist as an affiliate. Peter over at JList has a decent aff. program that pays 12%.
Believe me you do not want to upset the Yakuza. I do not speak from personal experience. Watch for the tattoos. You joke around but you think your a big hard man/ your nothing when you meet Yakuza, nothing.