If you intend to go on to play classical music with other people in Japan, ensembles & maybe even orchestral music, then there would be a strong case for buying a bowl-backed mandolin as that would be the general expectation in that scene.
You may want to check out the Mandolin Melodies Museum in Nagoya to get a flavour for the instrument in a Japanese context http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~mandolin/ they have a page of links to local societies where you might find some good guidance (not updated recently)
Also this page by Michael Richenbach who posts on here is very good
http://www.mandoisland.de/japan/eng_..._in_japan.html
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