And if you wanted yet another reason to envy Japan, here it is.
Look at all the cool schwag you get for registering your Japanese DS stuff with them..
http://club.nintendo.jp/new_present/index.html?Cb I'll take one of everything, please. That mario many-colored pouch looks nice, eh? I'll just patiently wait until they arrive on ebay for 5x as much money.
I do believe that if you have Japanese points (e.g. import games), despite location, you can use this towards purchases. Don't quote me, though.