Not sure about an import from Japan, but mine is an import from the middle east and I haven't faced too many problems.
It did go to a specialist who made sure it was up to MOT (Uk) standards. The main thing they did was to make sure the rear fog lights work and to rewire the light to show up on my dash when the fogs were on.
Other than that everything was left as it is, I did however install a new speedometer to get it to convert to MPH as mine was in KPH and didn't want to keep calculating in my head.
As for insurance mine is pretty reasonable, doesn't seem to be any premiums on it at the moment.