I pulled out my trusty iPhone and searched on the appstore. After sifting through the normal type & translate apps I found one that uses the camera. 'Lost in Japan' is the free version (only does single characters), and 'JapanGoggles' is the paid version. Your mileage may vary, but it helped me with my translations - even managed the read the dot-matrix japanese that told me I had a tail light out!
These sample pics are of the buttons taken with the in-app camera (then screen-grabbed after translated):



I'm in no way affiliated with this crowd, just thought it'd be a handy app for those of us with Japan-sourced cars!
Cheers,
Ben