I am definitely gonna be buying me one of those Japanese Tokai Les Pauls

I got mine new from eBay about two years ago. It's a mid-end Japanese model (LS80F), cost me around $700 incl shipping back then; they're slightly more expensive nowadays.

It's an amazing playing and sounding guitar. It has a wonderful acoustic tone, very resonant, and one of the nicest necks on I've ever played on any Les Paul-style guitar. Very well made, too; easily the equivalent of production Gibson USA models.

The stock pickups are so-so; the neck pickup is actually pretty nice, but I didn't like the bridge at all. I first replaced the pickups with Timbuckers (wonderful pickups), which I eventually had to sell. It now has the original Gotoh neck pickup, and a Wolfetone Marshallhead pickup in the brid

My particular guitar is finished in a very, very thin matte finish. I like the way it looks and feels (neck!), but they usually come in a more traditional glossy finish. I've never been able to do it justice on photo, but here is an old pic to get an idea:

 

Take a look at the Agiles too. The AL-3000 or higher are really good guitars and not just for the money. I absolutley LOVE my AL-3000 Gold Top. The pickups are really nice sounding alnico V, the swtiches are really good quality, the ebony fretboard is smooth and the playability of mine is actually world class. It just fits my hand like a glove. The string height is low and it plain plays fantastic. The abalone trapavoid inlays are really sweet too. The fretbaord radius is 13.7 inches so it's flat but not way flat.

$369.95 + shipping

It's such a nice axe that I bought a top end TKL case for it too.

 

Not exactly relavent, but my Tokai strat(pre 1982- Japanese) is one of my favorite guitars. They did it right, and it sounds and plays like a dream.

 

This guy comes across a lot of Japanese LP copies, might be worth giving him a call:
Marks Guitar Shop - (509) 325-8353 - 918 W Garland Ave, Spokane, WA 99205

 

FWIW. I tried the Tokai's. They seemed fine but for the money....
I just got a 1983 Yamaha SBG1000. These things rock. Killer pick ups, coil splits. mahogany body and maple top.... You can get'em for a deacent price. I would put it up against ANY Les Paul....Yes ANY

 

This would be the original configuration of an old LS-150 model and probably a good choice for metal music. I'm testing several bridge pickups for my LS-120 at the moment, and so far I like the DiMarzio PAF (7.5 kOhm) very much, but I'm more into bluesrock stuff.

 

You can't get Tokai's in the US. JSD is a great dealer for MIK's but you will have to order from Japan for a MIJ model. Best bet is to hop over to tokaiforum.com and take a quick run through the threads as this topic comes up quite a bit.