I spoke yesterday with one of the few US agencies that places children from Japan. It was a good conversation in that I found out that the total estimated cost - including travel and government fees - to adopt from Japan through this agency is about $41,000. That beats the $50,000 or so that I've been quoted by a few people.
The downside is that this agency will not reveal the name of the Japanese agency they work with until after you've signed the agency contract and paid some of the fees. They told me that they don't want anyone contacting the Japanese agency directly. Well, duh! Of course they don't want that - the Japanese agency might tell them that they don't NEED an American placement agency!
So now Hubby and I are wondering how much it would cost to adopt directly from the unnamed Japanese agency without paying the middleman. If we could get the costs well below the $41,000 the American agency quoted, Japan becomes a more realistic option for us.