Japanese SmartPhone In English

[TokyoBrit]

Sorry if my first post to this forum is a little long-winded, but so far all the forums dealing with SmartPhones in Japan have been in Japanese... Which doesn't help me.

I used to own a Cassiopeia Pocket PC many years back, and currently use a regular DoCoMo phone, but would like to move to a SmartPhone so I don't have to carry so many pieces of electronic gear.

As you may know, DoCoMo have quite a few "foreign" SmartPhones in their "Pro" lineup, including the Android powered HTC Magic, the Snapdragon chipped TG01, as well as the HTC Diamond and Touch Pro.

Why do I call them "foreign"? Because none of them support the many native features of regular Japanese phones, like 1Seg TV, Video Phone, iMode, Deco-mail, etc.

And that's fine, because I can't make much use of them either.

Unfortunately, every one of those phones I mentioned comes with a Japanese interface, which the uneducated sales staff, and slightly better educated tech support staff, say can't be changed.

I think they can, if you know the right way to do it, so I've come to this site to ask that very question.

Of all the SmartPhones available to carriers in Japan (DoCoMo, Au, SoftBank, eMobile), whether they are WinMo, Android, Pre, or something else, does anyone have any experience with changing the OS to an English language version while retaining most of the usual features?